Australia Banks Join Digital Currency Trial for Tokenized Assets – Crypto News

Australia’s central bank said on Thursday it’s moving to its next stage in exploring digital currencies, launching a trial on how digital money and tokenization can support wholesale financial markets. 

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said in a statement on Thursday that stablecoins, bank deposit tokens and a pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be used by partners participating in the trial.

The trial is phase two of Project Acacia, a joint initiative from the RBA and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre announced in November last year.

A diverse range of organizations, from local fintech firms to major banks, have been selected to test 24 use cases, 19 of which will involve real money and five proofs-of-concept involving simulated transactions.

These tests would involve a range of asset classes, including fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, carbon credits and examining new ways of using bank accounts at the RBA.

This phase is expected to take six months, with results published in the first quarter of 2026.

Major banks onboard for crypto test

Three of the four major Australian banks are part of the pilot: the Commonwealth Bank (CBA), the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and Westpac Banking Corporation.

CBA said it will work with JPMorgan to evaluate how digital currencies and collateral records could deliver greater efficiency and liquidity with lower risk in the repo market.

“The repo market, with its critical role in liquidity management and monetary policy implementation, represents an ideal starting point for this exploration,” Sophie Gilder, CBA’s managing director of blockchain and digital assets, said in a statement. 

The repo market involves short-term borrowing and lending of funds, secured by government securities, where one party sells a security to another party and agrees to repurchase it later for a higher price.