Accelerating the Adoption of Digital Assets Through Project Acacia

Digital assets are increasingly shaping strategic conversations across the asset servicing industry, both in APAC and globally, as institutions explore how tokenization could change the way assets are issued, held, traded, and settled.

While interest continues to build, the industry remains in a transitional phase, balancing long-term ambition with near-term operational, regulatory, and risk considerations. October 2023 industry research from Roland Berger estimates that the global market value of tokenized assets could exceed US$10 trillion by 2030, underscoring both the scale of the opportunity and the importance of establishing sound market structure early.

Within that growth trajectory, tokenized commodities, such as carbon credits and gold are emerging as particularly compelling use cases. They are supported by meaningful market fundamentals, including approximately US$2.5 billion in voluntary carbon credit trading today (with projections of US$100–250 billion by 2030, representing a potential 40–100x increase), as well as an estimated US$5–6 trillion in privately held investment gold globally, alongside roughly US$500 billion in global gold ETF assets and sustained year-on-year demand growth.

Against this backdrop, market participants are actively testing settlement models to explore how digital assets could coexist with existing financial market infrastructure, and in doing so, help accelerate adoption.

Project Acacia, a joint research initiative led by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) emerged as a collaborative industry effort focused on understanding how tokenized assets can function within today’s institutional market frameworks.

Northern Trust participated as a lead use case participant and the sole global financial institution in Project Acacia, helping test a practical real-world use case and bringing an asset servicing lens to questions of custody, settlement, control, and investor protection. More broadly, the project reflects a wider industry shift: moving digital assets out of the conceptual realm and into applied, infrastructure-focused experimentation.

Project Acacia: Northern Trust’s Role and What the Use Case Demonstrated 

Project Acacia was designed to explore whether tokenized assets could be traded and settled using existing banking infrastructure, without waiting for the widespread availability of CBDCs or stablecoins.

Northern Trust’s work within the research initiative, in partnership with Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC), Swift, and Westpac, centered on demonstrating how institutional and wealth clients could access tokenized asset trading platforms while continuing to rely on existing payment infrastructure.

The use case focused on tokenized commodities, beginning with voluntary carbon credits, an asset class well suited to early experimentation given its lower trading velocity and relatively stable pricing characteristics. 

A core feature of the model was delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement, coordinated through synchronization rather than requiring both the asset and cash to exist on the same ledger. In this design, Swift acted as the synchronizer, coordinating messaging between traditional payment systems such as Westpac’s BT Financial wealth platform and blockchain-based asset transfers on Northern Trust’s Matrix Zenith™.

The use case demonstrated that existing commercial bank money can support tokenized asset settlement today, that settlement timelines can be compressed from days to minutes, and that traditional market participants can engage using familiar processes and controls. For Northern Trust, the exercise also reinforced a foundational point: digital asset workflows must be designed from the outset to align with institutional expectations for custody, control, and risk management.

“Our Project Acacia collaboration with Northern Trust demonstrated that tokenization can be explored in a way that builds upon existing institutional controls and governance frameworks. By leveraging familiar payment infrastructure, the initiative delivered practical insights into integrating tokenised assets into existing investment workflows, while preserving appropriate settlement assurance, risk management, and investor/member protections.”

Paul Abraham, Chief Of Investment Services, Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation

What Northern Trust’s Project Acacia Findings Mean for the Asset Servicing Industry 

The results of Northern Trust’s work within Project Acacia provide important signals for industry participants navigating the shift toward digital assets.

• Early adoption may not require a wholesale redesign of market infrastructure. Instead, progress can be made by bridging emerging technologies with established rails and creating pathways to tokenized markets while maintaining continuity with existing operational and control environments. In this transition, asset servicers play a critical role by providing continuity of control and safekeeping, supporting settlement certainty, and helping clients understand how risks shift under different settlement and custody models.
• Tokenized assets are not uniform. Settlement approaches may need to vary by asset type. Lower-velocity assets may be well served by synchronized settlement using traditional money, while higher-velocity assets may ultimately require more atomic settlement models. For the broader market, this points to the importance of optionality and interoperability rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. 
• Investor protection will hinge on education and informed choice across market models. As digital assets introduce new ways to trade and hold securities, market participants will need clearer guidance on how risk, control, and liability shift under different arrangements. With transparent disclosure and investor understanding as prerequisites, the industry can responsibly explore multiple interaction models rather than forcing a single standardized approach.

“What Project Acacia demonstrated is that institutions don’t need to wait for a fully re‑engineered market structure to begin engaging with tokenized assets. By connecting emerging technologies to existing payment rails, we can make progress today without compromising control, settlement certainty, or investor protection.” 

Justin Chapman, Group Head Of Strategic Partnerships, Digital Assets And Financial Markets

Digital Assets at Northern Trust: Supporting Innovation With Institutional Rigor

Northern Trust approaches digital assets as an extension of its long-standing asset servicing mandate, not a departure from it. Our focus remains centered on asset safety and control, transparency across the asset lifecycle, and alignment with regulatory expectations.

From tokenization to settlement and custody, Northern Trust supports clients by helping them navigate both the opportunities and the trade-offs associated with different digital asset models. This includes recognizing that greater automation and more direct access can increase efficiency; but can also introduce new operational, legal, and counterparty risks that should be addressed with the same rigor applied across traditional markets. 

“Tokenization isn’t a single model or settlement outcome. Different asset types will move at different speeds, and the market will need flexibility in how cash, custody, and control are aligned. Optionality and interoperability matter more than forcing one uniform approach too early.” 

Leon Stavrou, Country Executive, Australia And New Zealand 

Our participation in initiatives like Project Acacia reflects a commitment to industry collaboration, applied experimentation, and responsible innovation. Just as importantly, education remains a core component of this work, ensuring clients understand how different digital asset structures affect ownership, liability, and investor protection.

From Experimentation to Practical Progress

Digital assets are no longer a future-state discussion for asset servicers; they are an active area of exploration today. Projects like Acacia demonstrate that meaningful progress can be made using existing infrastructure, while still preparing for more advanced settlement models over time.

The path forward will likely be incremental and shaped by collaboration among asset servicers, banks, market infrastructure providers, and regulators. By prioritizing practical use cases, interoperability, and institutional standards, the industry can move digital assets from experimentation toward scalable adoption. For asset servicers, the opportunity lies in helping clients bridge that transition with confidence.

For more on our Project Acacia use case and others from the greater initiative, refer to the findings report.

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