Financial market tokenisation is the process of representing ownership of financial assets — such as bonds, managed funds, or other securities — as digital tokens on a blockchain or distributed ledger. This allows assets to be traded, settled, and managed programmatically, replacing legacy processes that rely on phone calls, emails, and multi-day settlement cycles.
Settlement is the moment a financial transaction becomes final — when an asset changes hands and payment is made. In traditional markets this takes two days (T+2), leaving both parties exposed to counterparty risk and tying up capital and collateral in the interim. When both an asset and a payment instrument exist on the same blockchain, settlement can occur atomically — simultaneously and irreversibly — at any time of day. This is why settlement infrastructure is the crux of tokenised markets: without it, the other benefits of tokenisation cannot be fully realised.
An AUD stablecoin is a digital token pegged to the Australian dollar, designed to function as a programmable settlement asset on blockchain infrastructure. Australia needs a domestic AUD stablecoin because the efficiency gains of asset tokenisation are substantially amplified when the money used for settlement is also on-chain — on the same platform as the assets being traded. Without an AUD-denominated settlement asset, tokenised Australian markets would depend on foreign stablecoins or off-chain payment rails, undermining the core benefits of atomic settlement.
Project Acacia is Australia's most substantive government-backed investigation into the tokenisation of wholesale financial markets, led by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC), with participation from ASIC, APRA, and Treasury. The Final Report was released in May 2026. It ran twenty real-money pilot use cases testing tokenised assets across fixed income, managed funds, and other asset classes, with AUD stablecoins and tokenised deposits used as settlement assets.
Research by the DFCRC estimates that tokenisation could deliver approximately A$24 billion per annum in economic gains to Australia across improved markets, payments, and asset management. Fixed-income markets alone could see gains of A$2 billion per annum through more efficient post-trade processing, improved collateral utilisation, and reduced settlement failures. On current trajectories — with only around 4% of real-world assets expected to be tokenised by 2030 — Australia is on track to capture only around A$1 billion of that potential.
A digital-native token structure treats the blockchain record as the primary — and only — record of ownership of an asset, rather than using a "digital twin" approach that references assets held in a traditional registry. Digital-native structures offer lower operational complexity, streamlined custody arrangements, and greater programmability. The Project Acacia Final Report describes digital-native structures as the "preferred target state" cited by participants, though only two use cases in the entire project adopted this approach — both involving Macropod.
Several significant changes are underway. The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 was passed in April 2026 and commences in April 2027. ASIC has updated its guidance on the financial product classification of digital assets. The Australian Government is advancing a dedicated regulatory regime for stablecoins — the "tokenised stored value facility" framework — as part of its payments licensing reforms. APRA's draft prudential standards for stablecoins are expected to follow Tranche 1 of the payment service provider reforms, anticipated in parliament in July 2026.
A stablecoin is a digital token issued by a non-bank entity, backed by reserve assets (such as cash or government securities), and designed to maintain a stable value relative to a fiat currency. A tokenised deposit is a digital representation of a commercial bank deposit on a blockchain. Both can function as on-chain settlement assets. Project Acacia explored both forms of tokenised money, with stablecoins being the predominant form used across its pilot use cases.
The post-Acacia work program includes exploration of a Digital Financial Market Infrastructure sandbox, a reconstituted joint regulator-industry tokenisation advisory group, a tokenised government bond initiative, and RBA consultation on settlement infrastructure upgrades. The RBA has identified shaping the future of money in Australia as a strategic priority of its Payments System Board.