Reserve Bank of Australia Plans Wholesale CBDC Trials on Public and Private DLTs

Project Acacia is an Australian initiative to support the settlement of tokenized transactions using stablecoins, tokenized deposits or a pilot wholesale central bank digital cy (wCBDC). It was first announced in late 2024. As with previous digital cy pilots, it is a joint project between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC). The securities regulator ASIC has provided some regulatory exemptions during the six month span of the project.

One of the most notable aspects is that the wCBDC will be issued on a range of public and private blockchains and DLTs. For example, Australian Payments Plus is a participant on the Hedera public network. Apart from Hedera, the DLTs for the pilot include Redbelly Network, R3 Corda, Canvas Connect and other EVM-compatible networks.

Twenty-four use cases have been selected, with 19 of them planning to use real money. Fourteen companies will participate, including three of the big four Australian banks and Northern Trust. However, National Australia Bank is not one of the participants.

“Ensuring that Australia’s payments and monetary arrangements are fit-for-purpose in the digital age is a strategic priority for the RBA and the Payments System Board,” said Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA. “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.”

As with some other explorations, a wide range of use cases are planned including various asset classes, such as fixed income, private markets, trade receivables and carbon credits. There are several similar projects around the world, including Europe’s recent wholesale DLT settlement trials, Hong Kong’s Project Ensemble and Switzerland’s Project Helvetia which is live in a production environment despite being in a two year pilot phase.