Macropod secures strategic investment led by Betashares to scale Australia’s first regulated AUD-backed stablecoin

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 20:05:36 +0000

Alex Vynokur

Macropod, the first licensed issuer of an Australian dollar–backed stablecoin, today announced a minority strategic investment led by Betashares, a leading Australian financial services company with more than $75 billion in assets under management across ETFs, managed accounts and superannuation, alongside a range of global and regional leaders in digital assets, including Galaxy Digital, Flowdesk, DACM and Primal Capital.

The investment marks Macropod’s first major institutional capital raise since receiving regulatory authorisation and will support the scale-up of AUDM, its regulated digital Australian dollar stablecoin, as demand for compliant digital settlement infrastructure accelerates globally.

The capital raise comes amid increasing institutional exploration of stablecoins for payments, cash management, tokenised assets and cross-border settlement, driven by improving regulatory clarity and the need for faster, efficient financial infrastructure.

Macropod issues AUDM, a fully backed, transparent Australian-dollar stablecoin designed to function as core tokenised settlement infrastructure for payments providers, wealth platforms, asset managers, superannuation funds and global digital markets. AUDM is backed on a 1-for-1 basis by cash reserves held in segregated trust accounts with multiple major Australian banks.

The funding from the capital raise will be used by Macropod to undertake the following growth initiatives:

Scale AUDM issuance and distribution across exchanges, wealth platforms, payments providers and enterprise partners
Deepen regulatory and compliance capability, including ongoing engagement with ASIC, AUSTRAC and Treasury as Australia’s digital asset framework evolves
Enhance Macropod’s technology platform to support secure, high-integrity settlement at scale
Accelerate commercial partnerships across superannuation, asset management, remittance, trade finance and emerging tokenised markets.

The funding will also support liquidity provisioning, custody and settlement integrations, selective hiring across engineering and compliance, and a series of regulated pilots in real-time settlement and tokenised financial markets.

“The participation of Betashares and a selected range of global and regional leaders in digital assets constitutes a significant milestone for Macropod,” said Mr Drew Bradford, CEO of Macropod. “We are committed to building digital markets in a safe and transparent way, and the capital strengthens our ability to scale AUDM, expand our technology platform and accelerate adoption across payments, wealth and tokenised settlement markets.”

Commenting on the investment, Mr Alex Vynokur, Founder and CEO of Betashares, said: “For over 15 years, we’ve deployed our passion for responsible innovation in service of Australian investors. We firmly believe in the transformative potential of regulated, transparent, asset-backed digital infrastructure and its wide-ranging applications across wealth management and financial services.”

“Globally, stablecoin adoption across financial services and payments is accelerating as real-world use cases become clearer and more widely implemented. Stablecoins have significant long-term potential to increase efficiency and reduce costs across payments and digital-based applications in the financial services sector. Importantly, Macropod is regulated by ASIC and is taking a responsible approach to innovation and the application of stablecoins across a range of potential use cases,” added Mr Vynokur.

MHC Digital Group, a significant shareholder in Macropod, will continue providing strategic support across technology build, business development and liquidity provision as AUDM adoption expands.

Macropod’s leadership in regulated digital infrastructure was recently recognised with Mr Bradford named Blockchain Leader of the Year at the 2025 Blockies Awards.

Market backdrop

Stablecoins have become one of the fastest-growing elements of global financial infrastructure, now approaching US$300 billion in circulation with settlement volumes rivalling major global payment systems.

With institutional adoption gathering momentum and regulatory certainty improving, it has recently been forecast that global stablecoin supply could reach US$1.9 trillion, and as high as US$4.0 trillion by 2030.

Regulatory progress is continuing both in Australia and globally. The passage of the GENIUS Act in the U.S., as well as emerging regimes in Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong is accelerating institutional interest and helping legitimise stablecoins as a foundational layer of modern financial infrastructure.

In this environment, AUDM could be a critical and timely solution for institutions seeking to deploy stablecoins. As the first regulated AUD-denominated stablecoin, it provides Australian institutions and market participants with a transparent, locally-anchored digital dollar that can be used for payments, asset tokenisation, cross-border flows and enterprise settlement, including by superannuation funds and wealth platforms.

AUDM tokens are currently backed on a 1-for-1 basis with cash reserve assets held in segregated trust accounts with multiple major Australian banks. Longer term and subject to regulatory considerations, Betashares, which already manages over $75 billion in assets including $15 billion in cash and fixed income assets, may provide treasury management services to Macropod in relation to the underlying Australian dollar reserves for AUDM.

Outlook for 2026+

By the end of 2026, Macropod anticipates that AUDM will be the leading Australian-dollar stablecoin, supported by deeper liquidity and broader availability across the digital asset ecosystem. Following its successful launch on Independent Reserve, the company is focused on expanding AUDM’s presence across major Australian and global trading platforms.

“Ensuring deep, consistent liquidity is a core priority,” said Mr Bradford. “We are progressing the technical and risk integrations required to support broader exchange access, so institutional and retail users can rely on AUDM as a regulated digital Australian dollar.”

Macropod also expects growing adoption of AUDM in real-world financial applications, including payments, institutional settlement and tokenised asset markets, alongside increased interoperability across blockchain networks.

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Superannuation funds plan to boost offshore allocations

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 21:40:40 +0000

Drew Bradford

Australian superannuation funds plan to ramp up their allocations to international assets as they seek to diversify investments and boost returns, according to a NAB survey published last week.

The NAB Superannuation FX Survey found that 72 per cent of Australian funds plan to increase their share of offshore investments over the next two years and are considering unlisted assets such as private debt, infrastructure and real estate. The results indicated funds currently have on average 41 per cent of their assets offshore.

“This survey is a poignant snapshot of what Australian superannuation fund managers are thinking and how they plan to approach investment strategy and foreign exchange risk in the low interest rate world,” said Drew Bradford, NAB Executive General Manager Markets.

“The results show that at the same time that funds are increasing their offshore holdings, they are hedging less of their FX exposure to take on more FX risk,” Mr Bradford said.

“This is because they want to be more responsive to market movements, such as a perceived large undervaluation or overvaluation of the Australian dollar.”

The average hedge ratio applied to international equity exposure has fallen to 29 per cent in 2019 from 39 per cent in 2017, the survey found. Mr Bradford said this drop likely reflects the downtrend in the Australian dollar, from above 80 US cents at the time of the 2017 survey to nearer 70 US cents in 2019, and the expectation that the currency could fall further.

The NAB Superannuation FX Survey examines the hedging techniques of 61 Australian superannuation funds with $1.82 trillion of assets under management, which, according to ASFA data, is about 90 per cent of industry assets under management, excluding self-managed super funds. It is the only survey of its kind in Australia. The survey takes place every two years and the 2019 survey is the ninth edition.

The results also showed that funds are increasingly using target percentages for their foreign currency exposure, rather than traditional hedging ratios. For those funds targeting a percentage of foreign currency exposure, the average desired exposure is 24 per cent in 2019, based on the MySuper or the default option of the fund.

“The move away from traditional hedging ratios is a seismic shift in thinking,” Mr Bradford said.

“More funds want to view currency risk through the same lens as other asset allocation decisions and feel that running a higher foreign exposure is a cost-effective way to protect against any deterioration in risk sentiment,” Mr Bradford said.

Another significant finding of the survey was that internal investment teams are playing a more influential role in setting the strategy for currency decisions.

The NAB Superannuation FX Survey was launched last week at the NAB Super Fund Conference in Melbourne.

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Macropod secures strategic investment led by Betashares to scale Australia’s first regulated AUD-backed stablecoin

Market backdrop

Outlook for 2026+

Superannuation funds plan to boost offshore allocations

Australian superannuation funds plan to ramp up their allocations to international assets as they seek to diversify investments and boost returns, according to a NAB survey published last week.