Australia's central bank advances Project Acacia to test CBDC and tokenized asset settlement

Odaily News The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced on Thursday that its key project "Project Acacia" is entering the next phase of testing, which will explore how crypto assets and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can support the development of the country's wholesale tokenized asset market. The project plans to test 24 use cases in the next phase, with participants including fintech companies and major banks such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ Bank and Westpac Bank. The tests will cover a variety of settlement assets, including stablecoins, bank deposit tokens and pilot wholesale CBDCs. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it would provide regulatory easing to project participants to test tokenized asset transactions. The project is a joint initiative of the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center, and is an important part of the Australian government's "fit for purpose" digital asset framework. (The Block)