Australia’s Tokenization Push Could Cement ‘Even Greater Financial Control’

Australia’s top financial watchdog has approved a select group of firms to pilot real-money transactions using central bank digital currency and stablecoins, marking the country’s most ambitious foray yet into tokenized finance. 

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said Wednesday it would grant regulatory relief to 14 participants in Project Acacia, a joint effort between the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre aimed at testing how digital forms of money can support institutional trading of tokenized assets.

Tokenized assets are digital representations of real-world assets, such as bonds, property, or commodities, recorded on blockchain technology, enabling fractional ownership and faster settlement of traditional financial instruments.

The latest development represents Australia’s most ambitious attempt at tokenized finance, with potential annual economic gains of up to $12.4 billion, according to recent DFCRC research. 

The 24 selected use cases span diverse asset classes, including fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits. 

Major financial institutions, including ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and Westpac, will participate alongside fintech companies like Fireblocks and Zerocap in what officials describe as “world-first” testing scenarios.

The regulatory clearance enables responsible testing of tokenized asset transactions between participants and financial institutions over the coming months, with ASIC’s relief supporting streamlined pilot operations that would otherwise face regulatory barriers.

A test of technology and ideology

“Governments worldwide are rushing to develop state-sanctioned blockchain solutions” that offer “none of the real innovation provided by Bitcoin, instead offering options mired in centralization and control,” Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer at Komodo Platform, told Decrypt.

“The state’s contempt for decentralized technology can be seen with these actions, as they’re backing extremely centralized blockchain solutions,” Stadelmann said. “Project Acacia is not focused on open, permissionless blockchain technology, but, instead, like many of the blockchain projects by traditional finance, will be permissioned.”

Permissioned blockchains are private networks where access and activity, such as validating transactions or deploying smart contracts, are restricted to approved participants.

These systems are typically governed by a central entity or consortium and are often used by governments, banks, or corporations for compliance and control.

By contrast, permissionless blockchains, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, are open to anyone. They rely on decentralized consensus mechanisms, allowing users to participate without gatekeepers.

Proponents argue they offer greater transparency, censorship resistance, and innovation, values some critics say are absent from state-backed or institution-led blockchain initiatives.

In the project, nineteen pilots will involve real-money and real-asset transactions, while five proof-of-concept cases will use simulated transactions.

Settlement assets include stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and pilot wholesale central bank digital currency, alongside new applications of banks’ existing exchange settlement accounts at the RBA.

The pilot wholesale CBDC issuance will occur across multiple distributed ledger technology platforms, including Hedera, Redbelly Network, R3 Corda, Canvas Connect, and other EVM-compatible networks.

Testing will run for six months, with the findings to be published in the first quarter of 2026.

The project is one of the key initiatives outlined in the Government’s Statement on Developing an Innovative Australian Digital Asset Industry, which sets out Australia’s strategy for blockchain and digital asset development.

Stadelmann questioned whether the nation’s approach would “leave Australia in the dark ages versus more forward-thinking jurisdictions” that adopt open blockchain solutions.

“When the state gives benefits only to certain types of blockchain projects, but not others, a two-tier system is automatically created,” he said.

“Australia is giving its public centralized solutions, stripping them of the real innovations blockchain offers,” Stadelmann added, warning that if successful, the project could see “traditional financial systems become further entrenched in society and yield even greater financial control than before.”