eAUD pilot continues, Australia launches first FX transaction using CBDC
The FX transaction was a part of Australia's CBDC pilot, which will generate its final findings and results on June 30, 2023
Image: Shutterstock
In the midst of a growing interest of countries worldwide to explore more in the field of and launch digital currencies issued by their central banks, Australia made its first successful foreign exchange transaction using its CBDC or central bank digital currency- the eAUD.
This was a part of Australia’s live pilot of its potential CBDC.
On May 17, 2023, eAUD was traded by crypto fund managers DigitalX and TAF Capital against the stablecoin USD Coin as per Canvas, which is a blockchain infrastructure provider.
Canvas reported that compared to the traditional foreign exchange and remittance networks which were “slow, expensive and prone to errors”, the FX transaction using eAUD was instantly settled.
As the country explores the various possible use cases for a central bank digital currency, it conducts a series of tests of which the FX trade was a part. The RBA or the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the DFCRC or the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, which is a financial research institute, collaboratively launched this pilot program.
