meta_id 3160908

On May 18, 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) released findings from Project Acacia, a joint initiative examining how innovations in digital money and settlement infrastructure could support wholesale tokenised asset markets in Australia. Project Acacia identified potential for asset tokenisation to enhance efficiency, functionality and resilience of Australia's wholesale financial markets. Industry participants developed and tested 20 wholesale tokenised asset market use cases spanning multiple asset classes, demonstrating benefits across the asset lifecycle from issuance and servicing to trading and settlement. Testing explored settlement methods using different forms of digital money, including RBA exchange settlement account (ESA) balances, a pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), tokenised commercial bank deposits and stablecoins. The project also identified challenges to scaling tokenised markets requiring deeper analysis by regulators and industry. Building on Project Acacia's momentum, the RBA and DFCRC outlined a multi-stream program advancing responsible innovation in Australia's wholesale financial markets. Key program elements include strengthened industry-regulator cooperation; exploration of a regulatory sandbox for digital financial market infrastructure providing a structured pathway from experimentation to commercialisation; consideration of government-issued tokenised bonds; continued industry-led work on interoperable commercial bank deposit tokens; and RBA consultation on adapting settlement infrastructure and ESA access arrangements alongside continued wCBDC exploration. This project is significant because it signals that Australian regulators are moving beyond theoretical CBDC and tokenisation discussions toward practical market infrastructure experimentation. Australia’s regulators are increasingly preparing for a future where tokenised assets and digital settlement mechanisms become part of mainstream wholesale financial market infrastructure. Companies should treat this as an early signal to assess how tokenisation, programmable money, and digital settlement models could affect their long-term operating, liquidity, custody, and market participation strategies.