In a speech on Project Acacia, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) foreshadowed findings from its industry collaboration on tokenisation in wholesale markets and outlined a coordinated work program with the Council of Financial Regulators (CFR), the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) and industry. The RBA’s core message was that the question is no longer whether tokenisation has a future in Australia’s financial system but how it can be implemented in a way that reduces risk and improves efficiency and functionality. Project Acacia tested 20 use cases with regulatory relief from ASIC and AUSTRAC, spanning tokenised assets including government and corporate bonds, repos and bank term deposits, as well as investment funds and other assets. Settlement used both tokenised private money (stablecoins and bank deposit tokens) and central bank money (wholesale CBDC and exchange settlement account (ESA) balances), including issuance of wholesale CBDC onto external ledgers. The RBA pointed to DFCRC analysis estimating potential economy-wide gains of around AUD 24 billion per annum, while noting impediments to commercial adoption such as legal and regulatory uncertainty, interoperability challenges and coordination failures. On tokenised money, the speech highlighted the potential efficiency gains from aligning tokenised assets and money on the same ledger over the long run, while suggesting near-term progress could come from synchronisation approaches, including delivery-versus-payment mechanisms linking tokenised asset platforms with the RBA’s Reserve Information and Transfer System (RITS). Next steps include RBA exploration with DFCRC of a digital financial market infrastructure (DFMI) sandbox, intended as a longer-term, stage-gated testing environment, with work to begin after the Australian Government’s independent review of financial sandbox arrangements. Industry input on synchronisation and interactions between wholesale CBDC, deposit tokens and stablecoins is intended to feed into the RBA’s longer-term work on options for RITS modernisation. The RBA also signalled a review of policies governing ESA access once the first tranche of the Government’s payment service provider licensing reforms has passed Parliament, and flagged further work on wholesale cross-border payments during the year, alongside new joint industry forums including a Regulator-Industry Tokenisation Advisory Group, an expanded Deposit Token Working Group and a CFR-led C-suite roundtable.
Reserve Bank of Australia 2026-03-25
Reserve Bank of Australia foreshadows Project Acacia findings and plans DFMI sandbox and exchange settlement account access review
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) outlined findings from Project Acacia, emphasizing tokenisation's future role in enhancing efficiency and reducing risk in Australia's financial system. The project tested 20 use cases with regulatory relief, highlighting potential economy-wide gains of AUD 24 billion annually, while addressing challenges like legal uncertainty and interoperability. The RBA plans further exploration of digital financial market infrastructure and policy reviews, alongside new industry forums to advance tokenisation and modernize the Reserve Information and Transfer System (RITS).