Australia's central bank advances Project Acacia to test CBDCs, tokenized asset settlement

Australia's central bank said its key "Project Acacia" is entering the next phase of testing to explore how crypto assets and central bank digital currencies can support the development of the country's wholesale tokenized asset markets.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced plans to trial 24 use cases in the next stage, involving participants such as fintech firms and major banks. 

Project Acacia is a joint initiative between the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre. It also receives support from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). ASIC noted that it is providing regulatory relief to project participants to test tokenized asset transactions, in some cases using CBDCs.

In its next stage, the project is set to test various settlement assets, including stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and pilot wholesale CBDC, as well as enhanced applications of banks' existing exchange settlement accounts at the RBA. 

The pilot participants include several major banks in Australia, such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia and New Zealand Banking Corporation, and Westpac Banking Corporation. 

"Project Acacia represents an opportunity for further collaborative exploration on tokenized asset markets and the future of money by the public and private sectors in Australia," said Brad Jones, assistant governor (Financial System) of the RBA, in the statement. "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."

The Australian government is actively exploring the role of crypto assets and CBDCs within its broader financial system. In March, the Treasury outlined plans to develop a "fit-for-purpose" digital asset framework, with Project Acacia highlighted as a key initiative.