RBA Advances Wholesale CBDC Pilot with Project Acacia

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has launched a significant pilot program to explore a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), but this initiative is aimed at institutional markets rather than everyday consumers. Named Project Acacia, the pilot will run for the next six months and use real money and tokenised assets to examine how digital currency could reshape the operation of financial markets.

What Project Acacia Will Test

Project Acacia is focused on wholesale use cases — that is, transactions and processes between financial institutions, market infrastructure providers and large-scale participants. The pilot will examine how tokenised central bank money can be integrated with existing market workflows to improve efficiency and reduce risk. Areas under consideration include:

• Bond settlements: Testing whether tokenised money can speed up settlement processes, reduce counterparty risk and streamline post-trade operations.
• Private investments: Exploring how digital currency might support more efficient settlement and record-keeping for private equity, syndicated loans and other non-public instruments.
• Carbon credit trading: Assessing whether tokenisation of carbon credits combined with central bank money can increase transparency and traceability in environmental markets.

Why This Is Not a Retail Digital Currency

Unlike a retail CBDC intended for consumer payments, Project Acacia concentrates on institutional finance. The RBA is not creating a digital Australian dollar for everyday purchases; instead, it is investigating how wholesale CBDC could make financial markets faster, cheaper and more transparent for regulated participants. The pilot aims to identify technical, operational and regulatory challenges associated with tokenised central bank liabilities within the existing financial ecosystem.

Industry Partners and Pilot Design

The RBA will run the pilot with industry partners, including distributed ledger technology networks such as Hedera and R3 Corda. Working with established industry participants allows the RBA to test integrations with prevailing market infrastructure, messaging standards and clearing arrangements. The pilot will rely on live testing with real funds and real assets to provide practical insights into how tokenised central bank money interacts with commercial bank systems and asset registries.

Expected Outcomes and Next Steps

Over the course of the next six months, Project Acacia will gather evidence on the potential benefits and limitations of a wholesale CBDC. The RBA plans to publish a report with the pilot’s findings next year, outlining technical results, operational lessons and considerations for policy and regulation. That report will help inform whether and how a wholesale CBDC could be adopted or further developed in Australia’s financial system.

Implications for Financial Markets

Wholesale CBDC research is part of a broader global effort by central banks to understand how digital money could improve market functioning. If successful, tokenised central bank money could reduce settlement times, lower operational costs and increase transparency for complex transactions. However, the pilot is designed to assess practical constraints — including interoperability, legal frameworks and the interaction with commercial bank money — before any decision is made about broader implementation.

Project Acacia represents a measured, collaborative approach: the RBA is deliberately testing narrow, high-value institutional use cases rather than pursuing a consumer-facing digital currency. By focusing on real-world trials with established market participants, the RBA aims to produce actionable evidence that will guide future policy and technological choices.