Deployments · platform by Australian Payments Plus

RBA and DFCRC Project Acacia (pilot wholesale CBDC for tokenised markets)New

A Reserve Bank of Australia and Digital Finance CRC project on money and settlement for wholesale tokenised asset markets. From August 2025 to February 2026 industry participants ran 20 use cases, 12 of them pilots with real money and real assets. Eight used a pilot wholesale CBDC, a real claim on the RBA issued onto three third-party ledgers (AP+ HashSphere, Canvas Connect and Redbelly Network) through ANZ, Banking Circle Australia and Cuscal as distributors; A$4.4 million was issued in total. The final report (May 2026) sets out a follow-on programme rather than a production wholesale CBDC; the RBA now calls the concept tokenised central bank reserves.

Inactive · concluded as planned since May 2026^[1]i — Time-limited pilot with real value; the pilot wCBDC was redeemable at the end of the project. Follow-on work (sandbox, tokenised government bond, RITS consultation) is not recorded here. · Reviewed 24d ago i

Assets

Wholesale central-bank money^[1]

RBA pilot wholesale CBDC (AUD)

Networks

AP+ HashSphere Private, permissioned^[1]

Canvas Connect Private, permissioned^[1]

Redbelly Network Public, permissioned^[1]

Hedera Public, permissioned^[1]

Public Hedera held a digital twin of wCBDC ('white coin') in the AP+ interchange pilot and stablecoins in the Imperium pilots.

Use cases i

Delivery versus payment (DvP)^[1]Secondary trading^[1]Primary issuance^[1]

Jurisdictions

Australia

Participants

• Reserve Bank of AustraliaOperator, Issuer^[1]Australia
• Digital Finance Cooperative Research CentreOperator^[2]Australia
• ANZDistributor^[1]Australia
• Banking CircleDistributor^[1]Luxembourg
• CuscalDistributor, Issuer^[1]Australia
• Australian Bond ExchangeCounterparty^[1]Australia
• Australian Payments PlusPlatform provider, Technology provider^[1]Australia
• CanvasPlatform provider^[1]Australia
• Imperium MarketsPlatform provider^[1]Australia
• NotCentralisedIssuer^[1]Australia
• FireblocksTechnology provider^[1]United States
• Commonwealth Bank of AustraliaCounterparty^[1]Australia
• Forte Securities AustraliaIssuer^[1]Australia
• Macropod GlobalIssuer^[1]Australia
• ZerocapPlatform provider^[1]Australia
• Northern TrustPlatform provider^[1]United States
• ProspEx GroupPlatform provider^[1]Australia
• SwiftTechnology provider^[1]Belgium
• J.P. MorganCustodian, Platform provider^[1]United States
• Many further collaborators are named in the report's appendix (e.g. AustralianSuper, NAB, Westpac, Perpetual) but their roles in wCBDC settlement are not separated; ASIC, APRA and Treasury supported the project.^[1]

Assets

• IssuesRBA pilot wholesale CBDC (Project Acacia)^[1]

Metrics i

• A$4.4mPilot wCBDC issued · as of Feb 2026^[1]
• 12 use casesReal-money pilot use cases · as of Feb 2026^[1]
• 8 use casesUse cases settling with pilot wCBDC · as of Feb 2026^[1]
  Includes proofs of concept.

Timeline

1. Happened 18 May 2026 · Retired · recorded 15 Oct 2026
   RBA and DFCRC publish the final report and a follow-on programme (sandbox, tokenised government bonds, deposit tokens, RITS and ESA consultation).^[2]
2. Happened 25 Feb 2026 · Production milestone · recorded 15 Oct 2026
   All pilot and proof-of-concept use cases complete.^[3]
3. Happened 12 Dec 2025 · Production milestone · recorded 15 Oct 2026
   Proofs of concept complete and pilot wholesale CBDC deployed onto several platforms.^[3]
4. Happened Aug 2025 (month only) · Launch · recorded 15 Oct 2026
   Experimentation phase begins with industry use cases, including real-money pilots.^[1]

Sources i