28 Feb Project Acacia Update of 28 February 2025
Update on Project Acacia
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) are collaborating on Project Acacia, a research project exploring how different forms of digital money and associated infrastructure could support the development of wholesale tokenised asset markets in Australia.
Project Acacia is being overseen by a steering committee containing members from the RBA, DFCRC, Australian Treasury, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Having all the key policy and regulatory agencies involved in Project Acacia should help to ensure the success of the project and maximise the learnings for Australia’s regulatory framework.
Project status
The Consultation Paper for Project Acacia was released on 8 November 2024, with responses due by 11 December 2024. The project received around 65 submissions, either responding to the consultation questions, expressing interest in participating in the experimental research phase or seeking to participate in the Industry Advisory Group for the project. Respondents included a wide range of established and newer entities interested in advancing the development of wholesale tokenised asset markets or new forms of digital money.
The project team has been working through consultation responses and engaging with respondents to refine their proposed use case proposals and understand any technical, business, or regulatory considerations. It is expected that the steering committee will take decisions from late April regarding the finalised use cases chosen for development and testing.
Testing is expected to occur in the second half of 2025, with participants potentially conducting real-money pilots, or engaging in proofs of concept or desktop research, depending on the nature of their use cases. The RBA and DFCRC will then publish a comprehensive report on the findings from Phase 2, summarising the lessons learned and their implications for the future of wholesale tokenised asset markets and digital money in Australia.
Industry Advisory Group
The RBA and DFCRC have also established an Industry Advisory Group (IAG), chaired by the DFCRC, to meet regularly to support Phase 2 of Project Acacia. The IAG will provide advice to the project steering committee on the project pathway, findings and future research opportunities.
Members of the IAG have been selected following a call for expressions of interest and will participate in a personal capacity. The RBA and DFCRC have sought to ensure that the group brings together members from a range of relevant fields (e.g., technology, operations, strategy and/or regulation) and with experience in different segments of markets (e.g. as product issuers, platform operators, banks, custodians and/or investors). It is anticipated that membership will be for the duration of the project, ending around late 2025. The initial membership of the IAG is shown below.
The first meeting of the IAG is scheduled for 3 March 2025. The DFCRC intends to provide ongoing updates on the work of the group.
Project Acacia Industry Advisory Group – Initial Membership*
Tony Richards (DFCRC, Chairperson)
Max Allan (King & Wood Mallesons)
Bianca Bates (JP Morgan)
Drew Bradford (Catena Digital)
Alvin Chia (Northern Trust)
Ross Edwards (Ripple)
Sophie Gilder (CBA)
Hannah Glass (Ashurst)
Dennis Hoenig (Kaleido)
Rajat Jain (AusPayNet)
Damian Jeffree (AFMA)
Tim Johnson (Australian Payments Plus)
Rene Michau (Standard Chartered)
Omer Mohammad (DigitalX)
Matthew Neece (Perpetual Digital)
Rose Ong (Swift)
Varun Paul (Fireblocks)
Robert Porter (ANZ)
Arturo Rodriguez (NotCentralised)
Lucy Stan (Westpac)
Paul Stonham (myCarbon)
Clive Triance (ASX)
Chris Weeks (Imperium Markets)
Sharon Yuen (R3)
* Senior staff members from the RBA (Brad Jones and Chris Thompson) and DFCRC (Talis Putnins and Mark Staples), as well as the Australian Treasury, APRA and ASIC will also attend meetings.