Why tokenise? Why now?

Tokenisation is operational in Australia.

The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 8 April 2026. The question is no longer whether — it is where you stand and how you move.

A$24bn
Annual opportunity
The estimated annual tokenisation opportunity for Australia, across funds, credit, and real assets.
Market sizing
24
Project Acacia participants
Industry firms selected by the RBA and Treasury to deliver tokenised asset pilots in Australia.
Public pilot
1
Public permissioned network
Redbelly Network was the public permissioned chain selected to underpin Project Acacia.
Redbelly Network
The series

Three briefs. One argument.

The commercial case for tokenisation, the window of opportunity now open in Australia, and the cost of waiting. Each brief stands alone; together they make the complete case.

Brief 01
The commercial case for tokenisation
Five outcomes for organisations that engage during the window: revenue expansion, cost reduction, capital efficiency, competitive positioning, and strategic optionality.
Read the brief →
Brief 02
Why the window is open
Three converging conditions created this moment: legal clarity from the Digital Assets Framework, production-grade infrastructure on Redbelly Network, and accelerating international momentum.
Read the brief →
Brief 03
The cost of waiting
Five costs that accumulate while organisations delay: client loss, distribution erosion, partner cost inflation, execution premium, and optionality foreclosure.
Read the brief →
Inside the briefs

What each brief covers.

A preview of the argument in each. The full briefs carry the evidence, the segment breakdowns, and the sources.

01
The commercial case for tokenisation
Tokenisation is a capability unlock, not a cheaper way to do the same thing. It produces five outcomes traditional infrastructure cannot: revenue expansion, cost reduction, capital efficiency, competitive positioning, and strategic optionality.
US$3tn

Cumulative tokenised volume processed on J.P. Morgan's Kinexys platform, with over US$5 billion in daily transactions. These are production numbers, not pilot results.

US$500m+

AUM reached by BlackRock's BUIDL within months of launch. Franklin Templeton's FOBXX holds around US$800 million across 661 wallet addresses.

1.5–2.5%

Typical Australian retail fund fees, against 0.55–0.65% wholesale. Most of the gap is distribution cost. For a A$500m fund, that is A$5m to A$10m a year that tokenised distribution can recover.

02
Why the window is open
Three conditions have converged for the first time: legal clarity from the Digital Assets Framework, production-grade infrastructure tested by the RBA, and international markets Australian organisations can now join rather than pioneer.
9 Apr 2027

The Framework passed Parliament on 1 April 2026 and commences 9 April 2027. The 12 months between is not a delay. It is the early-mover window while ASIC consults on standards.

24 firms

Project Acacia tested more than 20 use cases across bonds, repos, and funds, with CBA, ASX, and J.P. Morgan Kinexys. Redbelly Network was the public permissioned chain selected.

40+

Financial institutions now in Singapore's Project Guardian, including Apollo, UBS, State Street, and Franklin Templeton. The cross-border market structure already exists.

03
The cost of waiting
Waiting is not neutral in a forming market. Five costs accumulate quietly during delay: client and investor loss, distribution erosion, partner cost inflation, execution premium, and optionality foreclosure. They compound.
18–24 mths

How long these costs stay invisible. They rarely show as line items. They surface later in slower client acquisition, higher partner costs, and narrowed product sets, by which point they are already paid.

A$17.4tn

AUM represented by the UK Investment Association, which joined Project Guardian in 2025. Distribution relationships signed during formation become the templates later entrants negotiate against.

Never zero

The share of clients lost during a wait who stay with the organisation they chose. Client relationships, once formed, carry significant inertia and are not fully recoverable.

We no longer see the main question as whether tokenisation has a future in Australia's financial system, but rather, how.

Brad Jones, Reserve Bank of Australia — “After Acacia” speech, 25 March 2026
Find your context

The structural questions are the same. The context is different.

The framework applies differently depending on your operating model. Below is how it lands across the four segments we work with most.

Fund managers
Tokenised unit classes, scheme structure, and registry requirements.
Non-bank lenders
Tokenised loan assets, funding structures, and capital markets access.
Fintechs
Infrastructure classification, product design, and regulatory posture.
Service providers
Advice obligations and service delivery for legal, advisory, and accounting firms.
The commercial case, in short

Five outcomes traditional infrastructure cannot deliver.

Each applies across fund managers, non-bank lenders, fintechs, and service providers, though the mechanism differs between issuers and enablers. Brief 01 works through all five by segment.

01
Revenue expansion

Expanded addressable markets, margin recovered from disintermediated distribution, and product categories that could not exist before.

02
Cost reduction

Automated administration, reduced reconciliation overhead, and compressed settlement cycles. The outcome early movers realise fastest.

03
Capital efficiency

Faster deployment and recycling, liquidity premium compression, and collateral mobility. Often the largest outcome by quantum.

04
Competitive positioning

Early-mover positioning compounds and is hard to displace. A window outcome, progressively less available as the market matures.

05
Strategic optionality

The ability to move on your own terms rather than the market's. Most valuable before it is needed, least recoverable once it is.

Many institutions are still in wait-and-see mode while early movers can capture oversized market share.

McKinsey & Company — “From ripples to waves”, 2024
Readiness Index

Before you select a platform, understand where you stand.

A 12-question diagnostic across six dimensions. It tells you which gaps to resolve first and whether you sit at Foundation, Building, or Ready stage. Takes five minutes.

Dimension 1
Strategic intent
Dimension 2
Legal and compliance
Dimension 3
Operational readiness
Dimension 4
Technical infrastructure
Dimension 5
Market positioning
Dimension 6
Execution sequencing
Your result

Three bands. One path forward.

Where you land determines what comes next, not whether you proceed.

Foundation
Clarify before you commit

Unresolved questions around classification, compliance posture, or internal alignment. The right move is structured scoping before platform selection.

Building
Gaps identified. Sequence matters.

Meaningful groundwork in place, with two or three dimensions requiring resolution. A Readiness Session surfaces the right order of operations.

Ready
Conditions met. Move now.

Foundational questions resolved and positioned to engage. Early movers in this band can begin structuring before partner costs and execution premiums increase.