The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced on Thursday (July 10) that it is advancing to the next phase of its digital currency exploration, launching a trial to study how digital currencies and tokenization can support wholesale financial markets.
In a statement on Thursday, the RBA indicated that partners participating in the trial will use stablecoins, bank deposit tokens, and a pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).
This trial is the second phase of the Acacia project, a joint initiative announced by the RBA and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre last November.
A variety of organizations, from local fintech companies to major banks, have been selected to test 24 use cases, of which 19 will involve real currency, and 5 proof-of-concept cases will involve simulated trading.
These tests will cover a range of asset classes, including fixed income, private markets, trade receivables, and carbon credits, and will explore new ways for the RBA to utilize bank accounts.
This phase is expected to last six months, with results to be published in the first quarter of 2026.
Three of Australia's four major banks are participating in the pilot: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and Westpac.
CBA stated it will collaborate with JPMorgan to assess how digital currency and collateral records can provide greater efficiency and liquidity in the repurchase market while reducing risk.
"The repurchase market plays a critical role in liquidity management and the implementation of monetary policy, making it an ideal starting point for this exploration," said Sophie Gilder, Managing Director of Blockchain and Digital Assets at CBA, in a statement.
The repurchase market involves short-term borrowing of funds secured by government securities, where one party sells securities to another and agrees to repurchase them later at a higher price.
ANZ is leading a use case test for tokenized trade payables aimed at addressing the working capital and cash flow challenges faced by suppliers, the bank stated.
It will also conduct a tokenized fixed income use case, exploring wholesale CBDC as tokenized currency to facilitate risk-free credit and liquidity settlement.
Australia's market regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has granted participants some regulatory exemptions so they can experiment with assets outside current laws, the RBA stated.
ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke said in a statement, "We see useful applications of the underlying technology of digital assets in wholesale markets. The regulatory exemptions we are announcing today will allow for reasonable testing of these technologies to explore opportunities and identify and address risks."
Under the leadership of its center-left Labor government, the Australian government proposed a new cryptocurrency framework in March to regulate exchanges under existing financial services laws.
The government has also committed to working with Australia's four major banks to better understand the extent and nature of de-banking.
In August 2022, the government launched a series of industry consultations to draft a cryptocurrency regulatory framework.
Related: Bitcoin (BTC) investors are not fully prepared for a potential price of up to $133,000 in September.
Original article: “Australia to Test Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and Stablecoins in Next Phase of Cryptocurrency Program”
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
