RBA Tokenization Push: AUD 24B Upside, DFMI Sandboxes

Australia’s central bank (RBA) says tokenization is moving from trials to execution. Brad Jones, Assistant Governor, cited Project Acacia results showing tokenization and wholesale financial infrastructure upgrades could add about AUD 24B (US$16.7B) in annual economic value, mainly by reducing friction in wholesale settlement. The RBA will collaborate with government agencies and industry to test Digital Financial Market Infrastructure (DFMI) “sandboxes” using Project Acacia outputs. The next step focuses on scaling tokenized money and assets safely, including how wholesale CBDC interacts with bank deposit tokens and stablecoins, and synchronizing tokenized asset ledgers with RITS (the RBA’s transfer system). The rollout could be phased alongside CBDC development. Separately, RWA.xyz data shows on-chain RWA (excluding stablecoins) hitting a new high of US$27.5B, up 234% YoY, reinforcing demand for RWA tokenization. Key implementation risks flagged by the RBA include liquidity fragmentation, resilience under stress, and interoperability between new ledgers and existing bank rails. For traders, this is a policy-and-infra shift toward regulated tokenized-market plumbing; it’s supportive for the “RWA/tokenization” narrative, but not a direct short-term price catalyst for a specific listed coin.