Australia signals it’s ready to start testing asset settlement as part of Project Acacia
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) have named the firms joining Project Acacia, their collaboration to explore how digital money and supporting infrastructure can underpin Australia’s wholesale tokenised asset markets.
Participants include the Australian Bond Exchange, ANZ, Australian Payments Plus, Canvas Connect, Catena Digital, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Fireblocks, Forte Tech Solutions, Imperium Markets, Northern Trust, NotCentralised, ProspEx Group, Westpac and Zerocap.
In this phase, 24 use cases will be trialled, 19 pilots with real-world money and assets, as well as five proof-of-concepts using simulated transactions.
“It is great to have collaboration from so many parts of the industry, from small fintechs to large banks, alongside the key financial regulators in this forward-looking, innovative project,” said Talis Putnins, DFCRC’s Chief Scientist.
“The real money settlement models being tested, including issuing pilot wholesale CBDC on third-party platforms, reflect another world-first for Australia in this rapidly evolving field.”
The RBA has confirmed asset classes on the table include fixed income, private markets, trade receivables and carbon credits, with settlement assets featuring stablecoins, bank deposit tokens and a wholesale central bank digital currency.
Findings are due in the first quarter of 2026, with six months of testing to inform how digital-money innovation can strengthen the Australian economy.
A coordinated push
Project Acacia was first launched in November 2024 with its consultation paper, requesting industry feedback and interest in participation. In March, the project was mentioned in the Australian government’s Statement on Developing an Innovative Australian Digital Asset Industry.
The wider Australian payments space appears to be supporting the project. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), for instance, has offered relief to participating firms.
In a public statement, ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke explained how Project Acacia will allow industry and regulators to collaborate to learn more about how these use cases may reshape the financial services industry.
Putnins seconded this statement, sharing how research suggests potential economic gains in markets and cross-border payments could be in the order of $12.45bn (AU$19bn) per year.
“Project Acacia is a significant step towards realising these gains, by providing evidence on the forms of money and settlement models that best enable tokenised real-world asset markets,” he said.
CBDCs and Stablecoins
CBDCs have perhaps not been in the spotlight as much in recent months, mainly due to the rise of and focus on stablecoins. However, countries are still exploring use cases for the digital offering.
In January, the financial authorities of Papua New Guinea revealed an initiative with Japan to create a CBDC. Elsewhere, the Bank of Israel reported progress on the development of an Israeli CBDC in March. The digital shekel (DS) was said to have progressed past ‘the completion of a high-level design’.
While the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) are exploring the idea of their own CBDC, the US has been quite vocal against the idea. In fact, US President Donald Trump is so opposed to a digital dollar, he instructed a working group to take measures to protect Americans from the risks of CBDCs.
In an interview with FOX in February 2024, Trump said: “If I am the president, on day one, we will nix central bank digital currency. Done. Dead. Not happening in this country.”
However, Trump’s stance on stablecoins is at the other end of the spectrum. He has accelerated stablecoin legislation through the US’ legal processes. On June 17, the first federal legislation to regulate payment stablecoins was passed, named the GENIUS Act.
The argument between the two is far from over and is likely to heat up as different nations from across the globe begin to lean more favourably toward one side following research through initiatives such as Project Acacia.
