Australia Advances Tokenized Asset and CBDC Trials with Major Banks

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has launched the second phase of Project Acacia, testing digital money and tokenized settlements in wholesale financial markets. Partnering with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, the RBA selected 24 use cases—19 involving real assets and five using simulated data—to explore stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits, and a pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Brad Jones, RBA Assistant Governor, emphasized the project's potential to enhance market efficiency through innovations in digital money and payments infrastructure. The trials will cover asset classes like fixed income, private markets, and carbon credits, with pilot CBDCs issued on distributed ledger platforms including Hedera, R3 Corda, and EVM-compatible chains.

Major banks and fintech participants are operating under temporary regulatory relief, enabling testing beyond current frameworks. The initiative underscores Australia's push to modernize financial infrastructure amid global CBDC experimentation.