Quick answer: Australia’s central bank, the RBA, has decided there is no strong case for a retail CBDC right now and is prioritizing wholesale digital money instead, including a wholesale central bank digital currency. Its flagship experiment, Project Acacia, ran with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre to test how tokenized assets and wholesale CBDC could settle across markets including fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits. One clear theme: moving trade and settlement paperwork onto digital rails.
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
“CBDC” gets used as a single word, but the RBA’s work makes a distinction that matters: retail CBDC (digital cash for the public) and wholesale CBDC (settlement money for financial institutions) are very different projects with very different cases behind them. Australia has come down firmly on one side of that split, and the reasoning is documented in the RBA’s own primary sources rather than in speculation about them.
Australia’s stance: wholesale first, retail later
In a 2024 joint paper with the Treasury, the RBA concluded that there is no strong case for a retail CBDC in Australia at this time, and committed instead to prioritizing wholesale digital money and infrastructure, including a wholesale CBDC. The full reasoning sits in the RBA and Treasury report, Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Digital Money in Australia, with the matching Treasury publication providing the policy context.
The RBA’s assessment, laid out on its CBDC hub, is that the benefits of a wholesale CBDC look more tangible and the challenges less problematic than for a retail version. The stated benefits include reducing counterparty and operational risks, freeing up collateral, increasing transparency and auditability, and lowering costs. The RBA committed to a three-year applied research program, with a further paper on the merits of a retail CBDC slated for later in the program.
What Project Acacia tested
Project Acacia is the applied edge of that program, run by the RBA and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) with support from ASIC, APRA, and the Treasury. It moved from consultation into a live phase in which industry participants tested real transactions. The project selected a set of use cases spanning pilots that used real money and real assets alongside proof-of-concept work using simulated transactions.
The asset classes were deliberately broad: fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits. The settlement assets under test included stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and a pilot wholesale CBDC, and ASIC granted regulatory relief so participants could test tokenized asset settlement responsibly. The RBA and DFCRC published the project’s findings in the Project Acacia final report; a short summary sits on the RBA’s In Brief: Project Acacia page.
Taking the paper out of global trade
The trade-finance angle is where this gets concrete. Trade finance is still heavily paper-based, and working capital gets trapped in slow supply-chain settlement. One Project Acacia use case, tokenized trade payables, explored how wholesale CBDC and tokenized payment undertakings could automate settlement and unlock liquidity that would otherwise sit idle in a supply chain. A separate fixed-income use case looked at how a wholesale CBDC could streamline the issuance and settlement of bonds through smart contracts.
The through-line is that trade and market infrastructure need trusted records and interoperable workflows. That is a practical role for distributed-ledger systems that has nothing to do with speculation: it is about replacing manual reconciliation and multi-day settlement with programmable, near-instant settlement backed by central bank money.
How this fits the global picture
Australia is not working in isolation. The Bank for International Settlements has published extensively on CBDCs and fast payment systems, including its paper on CBDCs and fast payment systems, and its broader work on tokenisation and the monetary system. The World Bank tracks how faster settlement and lower payment costs affect remittances and development. And in the United States, MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative and the Boston Fed explored a hypothetical US CBDC through Project Hamilton. Read together, these show central banks converging on the same questions from different angles.
Why this matters
For anyone following digital assets, the RBA’s approach is a useful correction to the assumption that “CBDC” means digital cash surveilled at the retail level. Australia’s bet is on the plumbing: settlement infrastructure for institutions, where the efficiency gains are clearest and the risks most manageable. That is a technology-and-infrastructure story. It does not endorse any particular token, it says nothing about price, and it should be read separately from any investment decision. The value here is understanding where a G20 central bank is actually putting its research effort, straight from its own reports.
Common questions
Is Australia launching a retail CBDC?
Not at this time. In a 2024 joint paper with the Treasury, the RBA concluded there is no strong case for a retail CBDC right now and chose to prioritize wholesale digital money instead. It plans a further paper on the merits of a retail CBDC later in its research program.
What is Project Acacia?
Project Acacia is a joint research project by the RBA and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, supported by ASIC, APRA, and the Treasury, that tests how tokenized assets and wholesale CBDC could settle across markets. It ran pilots with real money and assets plus proof-of-concept work with simulated transactions.
What is the difference between wholesale and retail CBDC?
A retail CBDC is digital central bank money for the general public, similar to digital cash. A wholesale CBDC is settlement money used between financial institutions. The RBA assesses the benefits of a wholesale CBDC as more tangible and the challenges as less problematic than for a retail version.
How does Project Acacia relate to trade finance?
One use case, tokenized trade payables, explored how wholesale CBDC and tokenized payment undertakings could automate settlement and unlock working capital trapped in supply chains. The broader aim is to move trade and settlement records onto digital rails with programmable, near-instant settlement.
Which asset classes did Project Acacia cover?
The use cases spanned fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits, with settlement assets including stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and a pilot wholesale CBDC.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
