The Reserve Bank of Australia said tokenization could bring AU$24 billion in yearly efficiency gains to the national economy. 

Meanwhile, the central bank used findings from Project Acacia to show that tokenized assets and tokenized money are moving closer to practical use in wholesale finance. It said the next stage will focus on implementation, industry coordination, and market testing.

Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Brad Jones said the central bank now sees tokenization as a question of “how” rather than “if.” He made the remarks while presenting findings from Project Acacia, which reviewed how tokenized assets and money could work in Australia’s wholesale financial system.

Jones said research from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre estimated that tokenization could deliver AU$24 billion in annual efficiency gains. He also said the benefits could grow further if the technology supports the creation of new markets and services.

Project Acacia reviewed 20 use cases tied to tokenized assets, including government bonds, corporate bonds, repos, and investment funds. The project also tested settlement using four types of money, namely wholesale central bank digital currency, exchange settlement account balances, stablecoins, and bank deposit tokens.

The results showed that different forms of tokenized money may serve different roles. Jones said stablecoins could support smaller and newer tokenized markets, while bank deposit tokens may suit larger markets because banks already operate under prudential rules and have access to central bank liquidity facilities.

Moreover, Jones said stablecoins and bank deposit tokens could work in complementary ways rather than compete directly. This approach reflects the RBA’s current view that different tokenized payment tools may fit different parts of the wholesale market.

He also said market participants viewed a wholesale CBDC as “potentially helpful, but far from essential” for tokenized markets to develop. He pointed to the United States, where tokenized repo markets are already recording daily activity close to $400 billion without depending on a wholesale CBDC.

Sandbox and advisory groups set next steps

The RBA said it will work with the Council of Financial Regulators, the DFCRC, and industry participants on a set of new initiatives. A digital financial market infrastructure sandbox will provide a stage-gated setting for testing tokenized assets, money, and settlement systems.

The central bank will also review exchange settlement account access rules after payment service provider licensing reforms pass parliament. In addition, regulators and industry members will form a joint tokenisation advisory group, while an expanded Deposit Token Working Group will focus on interoperability between deposit tokens issued by different banks.

Monument Bank said it plans to tokenise up to 250 million pounds ($335 million) of retail customer deposits on the Midnight network in what it described as the first such move by a U.K.-regulated bank on a public blockchain.

The London-based challenger bank said the deposits will remain interest-bearing, fully backed by Monument and redeemable one-for-one in pounds sterling. They will also remain covered by the U.K.’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The move marks is a step in the push to bring tokenized financial products into regulated banking. While banks in the U.K. and elsewhere have explored tokenized deposits, most work to date has focused on institutional use or closed networks.

Monument is pitching this effort at retail customers, starting with clients with investable assets between 50,000 pounds and 5 million pounds, the so-called mass-affluent, according to asset manager St. James’s Place.

Monument, which says it has more than 100,000 customers and about 7 billion pounds in deposits, said the first phase will mirror savings balances on Midnight’s privacy-focused blockchain.

Later phases are meant to add tokenized investment products such as private market and commodity funds, followed by lending against those holdings inside the Monument app.

Midnight Foundation, which was developed by Shielded Technologies, a company linked to Cardano creator Input Output, is providing the blockchain infrastructure.

Monument said the system is designed so transaction data remains visible only to the bank and its customers, while operating within existing U.K. banking protections and compliance rules.

The announcement also points to a wider play. Monument said affiliate Monument Technology plans to offer tokenized deposit functionality through its Banking-as-a-Service platform. That could allow other institutions to adopt the same model.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose back above $71,000 during the early Asian trading hours on Wednesday after Trump’s administration offered a 15-point plan to Iran to end the war, sparking short-term optimism across risk assets.

Key takeaways:

• Bitcoin bounces 4% to $71,500 after President Trump sent Iran a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war. 

• Bitcoin faces stiff resistance above $72,000. 

Bitcoin jumps 4% on ceasefire hopes

Data from TradingView showed BTC price rose as much as 4% to an intraday high of $71,300 from Tuesday’s low of $68,890, recouping all the losses incurred the day prior.

The price reacted to news that the US, through the primary intermediary Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir (Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff), has sent Iran a 15-point plan aimed at ending the war.

The key elements of the plan include: a temporary ceasefire with calls on Iran to dismantle or severely limit its nuclear program, suspend its ballistic-missile work, and the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for safe maritime traffic.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to deny any ongoing talks as ​​Trump delayed his self-imposed deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Following the news, WTI crude oil dropped 5.75% to $87 per barrel, while Brent crude shed 6% to trade at $98.

Gold extended yesterday’s gains, now up 2.53% on the day to trade at $4,561 at the time of writing.

This move eases inflation fears tied to disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, positively impacting risk assets, including Bitcoin.

Analysts noted the swift repricing, with Coinlore saying that Bitcoin is now acting as a “real-time sentiment instrument for global risk.”

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr said that BTC will “likely remain headline-driven” until the US and Iran send a “public de-escalation signal.”

Bitcoin price faces “rough times ahead”

Despite the rebound, BTC’s upside appears to be capped at $72,000, where the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) and the upper trend line of a symmetrical triangle converge.

A break above $72,000 would confirm a bullish breakout from the triangle, toward the measured target at $92,400, 30% above the current price.

Glassnode’s cost-basis distribution heatmap reveals concentrated supply and resistance between $72,000 and $74,000, where investors acquired roughly 380,000 BTC over the last 30 days. This indicates that sellers could aggressively defend this zone.

On the downside, a dense accumulation cluster sits around $65,000, where investors previously acquired 160,000 BTC. 

This level coincides with the lower trend line of the symmetrical triangle, which, if lost, could trigger the next leg lower toward the bearish target of the triangle at $52,500.

Meanwhile, Capriole Investment’s Bitcoin Macro index has dropped to -1.37, levels seen at the depth of previous bear cycles.

The chart below shows that the metric historically spends a year at or below these valuations before recovering.

“Bitcoin Macro index is in the value zone,” Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards said in an X post on Wednesday, adding:

“In all prior instances, price went lower into deeper value first before recovering, suggesting we may have more rough times ahead first.”

As Cointelegraph reported, traders warn of a second bear flag breakdown that could clear the path for another sell-off below $50,000.