Key Takeaways:
- Australia’s Project Acacia enters its second phase with a six-month trial of CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenized assets across 24 financial use cases.
- Major banks including CBA, ANZ, and Westpac are participating, exploring applications from repo markets to tokenized trade payables and real-time settlements.
- Regulatory relief from ASIC enables testing outside existing legal frameworks as the government progresses on national crypto regulation.
Australia has launched the second phase of Project Acacia, a six-month trial exploring how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and tokenized assets can enhance wholesale financial markets.
Spearheaded by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, the initiative involves 24 use cases – 19 will feature real transactions, while five are theoretical simulations.
🚨 Massive news! @RedbellyNetwork has been conditionally selected for the @RBAInfo's Project Acacia, making us the FIRST public blockchain to host a central bank digital currency! 🇦🇺
— Redbelly Network (@RedbellyNetwork) July 10, 2025
We're tackling a problem every small business owner knows: waiting months to get paid.
Our… pic.twitter.com/giBGbOEZBL
Major banks like Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ANZ, and Westpac are participating.
CBA, in partnership with JPMorgan, is testing blockchain-based collateral tracking for the repo market.
ANZ is piloting tokenized trade payables and fixed-income products using a wholesale CBDC to support real-time settlements.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is supporting the pilot with regulatory exemptions, enabling participants to test solutions outside the current legal framework.
This aligns with broader national efforts to regulate digital assets, including proposals to bring crypto exchanges under existing financial laws.
Redbelly Network is also participating, aiming to tokenize construction invoices for faster payments to contractors.
With backing from Sydney University, CSIRO, and other partners, the project underscores Australia’s commitment to digital finance innovation and regulatory modernization. Results are expected in early 2026.
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