RBA Says Tokenization Could Cut Australia's Annual Costs by $16.7B, Launches DFMI Sandbox

On March 25, the Reserve Bank of Australia said the country is moving past experimentation toward real-world deployment of tokenized assets and wholesale digital currencies. It also presented Project Acacia research estimating tokenized money and assets could save about $16.7 billion (AU$24 billion) a year by reducing manual work, settlement delays, and capital costs. The RBA also announced a long-term DFMI sandbox for banks and fintechs to test tokenized products under supervision while highlighting risks such as liquidity fragmentation and platform incompatibility.