Australia Starts Research Program to Explore Digital Asset Opportunities

Twenty-five prominent institutions in Australia have come together to start a research program to benefit from the opportunities arising from asset digitization.

The Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center (DFCRC) is a 180 million Australian dollar (US$124.3 million) program, funded by industry partners, universities and the Australian Government. The 10-year long program will have 25 partners from the finance, academia and regulatory sectors, including the central bank.

Australian central bank governor Philip Lowe was present at the inauguration, along with Paul O’Sullivan, chairman of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ). Earlier this month, the Australian central bank entered into a collaboration with the DFCRC to explore use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

On Monday, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones officially launched the DFCRC at the Australian Securities Exchange.

"We want to get the regulation right because we want to ensure the guardrails are sufficiently wide to enable innovation to occur within a safe ecosystem,” Jones said.

ANZ's Sullivan noted this is a frontier opportunity in which a tokenized carbon exchange could lead to market efficiency.

DISCLOSURE

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.

Amitoj Singh

Amitoj Singh is CoinDesk's regulatory reporter covering India. He holds BTC and ETH below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.

Follow @amitoj on Twitter

Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.

Drive the Crypto Policy Conversation Forward