Australia begins second phase of tokenized asset and CBDC settlement trials with major banks

The Reserve Bank of Australia is advancing a pilot to test digital money and tokenized settlements, with regulatory relief granted to participants to enable testing beyond current regulatory frameworks.

Australia’s central bank, in partnership with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, has unveiled the next phase of Project Acacia, selecting 24 use cases to test how digital money and tokenized settlement models could reshape wholesale financial markets. Announced on July 10, this stage will involve 19 pilot use cases using real assets and transactions, along with five proofs-of-concept using simulated data.

Specifically, the trials will examine how stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits, and a pilot wholesale CBDC could be used for settling various asset classes, including fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits.

“The use cases selected in this project will help us to better understand how innovations in central bank and private digital money, alongside payments infrastructure, might help to uplift the functioning of wholesale financial markets in Australia,” said Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA.

As part of the project, the RBA will issue pilot CBDCs across a range of distributed ledger platforms such as Redbelly Network, Hedera, R3 Corda, and other EVM-compatible chains.

Participants include a mix of fintech startups and major financial institutions, such as ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, and Westpac. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has granted regulatory relief to allow pilot participants to conduct transactions that may not yet fall under existing frameworks.

This second phase of the project will run for six months, with findings to be published in the first quarter of 2026. Officials say the results will inform how public and private sector innovations could enhance the efficiency and resilience of Australia’s financial markets.

For context, Project Acacia was launched in late 2024 to explore how emerging forms of digital money and tokenized assets can modernize Australia’s wholesale financial infrastructure. It also aligns with the federal government’s broader digital asset strategy, outlined in a March 2025 policy statement aiming to foster innovation in Australia’s financial system.