The National Australia Bank (NAB) has created a stablecoin called AUDN, which it aims to launch in the middle of 2023, according to an Australian Financial Review (AFR) report cited by CoinDesk. The purpose of AUDN would for customers to settle transactions on blockchain technology in real time using Australian dollars, NAB said. It will launch on the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains.
The AUDN will be backed fully to the Australian dollar and the money will be held by the NAB, which is the second major Australian bank to be involved in the creation of a stablecoin. Earlier, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) teamed up with crypto custodian Fireblocks to mint a stablecoin pegged to the Australian dollar.
Australia has introduced token mapping to identify characteristics of all crypto tokens and how they are managed, and its central bank has started a pilot test to explore potential use cases for Australia’s own CBDC, expected to be completed by mid-2023.