What happened

Project Acacia was a joint research initiative led by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre to explore how digital money and new settlement infrastructure could support Australia's wholesale tokenised asset markets.

As part of the project, a pilot involving JellyC and its partners tested the issuance, trading and redemption of tokenised units in a wholesale managed investment scheme. Fund units were represented on-chain, with digital registry infrastructure and AUD-denominated stablecoin settlement brought together within an existing regulated fund structure.

Why it matters

The pilot demonstrated that tokenisation does not require Australia's existing legal and fiduciary frameworks to be replaced.

Instead, regulated fund structures can potentially adopt digital issuance, registry and settlement infrastructure while retaining the governance and oversight expected of traditional financial markets.

Project Acacia also provided practical evidence of the potential benefits of tokenised markets, including faster settlement, reduced counterparty risk, improved capital efficiency and greater automation.

TAF's role

TAF Capital acted as the licensed trustee within the pilot, providing the regulated fiduciary layer around the tokenised fund structure.

TAF was responsible for the custody and key management of investor digital assets used within the pilot, including fund tokens and AUDM, bringing those assets within an AFSL-regulated trustee framework.

Working alongside JellyC, Tokeniser, Redbelly Network, Macropod and OpenMarkets, TAF demonstrated how a professional trustee can remain at the centre of a fund structure even as issuance, registry and settlement begin moving onto digital rails.

For TAF, the pilot provides a practical example of its broader proposition: combining regulated oversight with specialist digital capability, while working with established technology and infrastructure partners around the structure.