🌐 Australia’s Digital Money Leap: Project Acacia Enters Phase 2! 🇦🇺

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), in partnership with the Digital Finance Collaborative Research Centre (DFCRC), has officially launched Phase 2 of Project Acacia as of July 2025—building on successful early-stage research and industry consultations.

🚀 What’s New in Phase 2?

• 24 innovative use cases: 19 real‑money pilots and 5 simulated proofs-of-concept covering asset types like fixed income, trade receivables and carbon credits.

• Participants: Three of Australia’s four major banks, leading fintechs, and infrastructure providers such as Hedera, Redbelly, R3 Corda, Canvas Connect, and Fireblocks.

• Digital money types under test: wholesale CBDC, stablecoins, and bank deposit tokens, including atomic settlement of tokenised securities.

• Regulatory support: ASIC has granted sandbox relief to enable real-money pilots safely under supervision.

• Timeline: Pilot phase runs for ~6 months, with findings scheduled for first half of 2026.

🎯 Why It Matters

• Efficiency & cost gains: Potential to reduce operational and counterparty risk, unlock collateral, and significantly cut transaction costs; earlier estimates projected A$1–4 billion in annual savings.

• Technological innovation: Integrating tokenised deposits and CBDCs on blockchain platforms to enable programmable and atomic settlement.

• Global positioning: Aligns Australia with advanced wholesale CBDC efforts globally—such as Switzerland’s Project Helvetia and BIS-backed initiatives.