Macropod, the company behind the AUDM stablecoin, has closed a funding round led by Betashares, Australia's largest ETF provider by fund count. Galaxy Digital and Paris-based crypto market maker Flowdesk joined as co-investors. The deal was reported by the Australian Financial Review on March 8, 2026. The specific amount raised has not been publicly disclosed. Macropod operates as a 50/50 joint venture between MHC Digital Group, led by investor Mark Carnegie, and Catena Digital, which was founded by former NAB and Deutsche Bank trading executives and holds an Australian Financial Services Licence from ASIC. Drew Bradford serves as CEO.

What AUDM Is

AUDM is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, pegged one-to-one to the Australian dollar. Each token is backed by reserves held in segregated trust accounts at a major Australian bank, initially NAB, and the company publishes monthly proof-of-reserve disclosures aligned with APRA standards. The token launched in October 2025. As of early March 2026, roughly 3.08 million AUDM tokens are in circulation, carrying a market capitalisation of approximately $2.17 million USD. At around $0.70 USD per token, the price tracks the current AUD/USD exchange rate as expected for a fiat-backed stablecoin.

The Regulatory Foundation

Catena Digital received its AFSL from ASIC in July 2025 under a new stablecoin-specific regulatory instrument, ASIC Corporations Instrument 2025/631. That instrument allows brokers, exchanges, and other intermediaries to distribute stablecoins issued by AFSL-licensed companies without obtaining separate market or clearing licences. The exemption runs until June 2028 and currently applies only to AUDM. Separately, pending legislation in the form of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payments System Modernisation) Bill 2025 would bring stablecoin issuers with more than A$200 million in reserves under full APRA prudential oversight. Macropod is well below that threshold today, but the legislative framework shapes its longer-term compliance roadmap.

Why These Investors

Betashares manages more than A$50 billion in funds under management as of mid-2025 and already offers crypto ETFs on the ASX, including products tracking Bitcoin and Ethereum. The move marks what observers see as a shift from passive index exposure toward direct equity in blockchain infrastructure.

Galaxy Digital, founded by Mike Novogratz and currently listed on both Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange, with the TSX delisting set to complete on March 19, 2026, closed a $175 million venture fund in mid-2025 targeting stablecoins and decentralised finance applications. Galaxy Ventures General Partner Mike Giampapa described the fund's thesis as backing crypto's transition away from speculative use cases toward tangible financial applications.

Flowdesk, meanwhile, provides market-making services to more than 150 exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. It raised $102 million in financing in March 2025, roughly 10 percent in debt from BlackRock and the remainder in equity from HV Capital. Its involvement with Macropod is expected to position the firm to provide liquidity for AUDM on centralised exchanges and over-the-counter trading desks.

Exchange Listings and Custody

Independent Reserve listed AUDM in December 2025. In January 2026, Zodia Custody, the digital asset custodian backed by Standard Chartered, became the first global custodian to support the token. Bradford said at the time: "We're pleased to see AUDM supported by Zodia Custody, following the successful development of use cases through the Reserve Bank of Australia's Project Acacia." Project Acacia is a wholesale tokenised-asset settlement research program that included Macropod among its selected industry participants in July 2025.

Regional Significance

For users across South Asia, a regulated AUD stablecoin has practical relevance. Australia is home to approximately 800,000 people of Indian origin, and the Australia-to-India remittance corridor is one of the most active in the Asia-Pacific region. Traditional remittance services typically charge fees of 3 to 7 percent per transaction. A programmable, on-chain AUD token with institutional custody and exchange listings offers a structural alternative, though AUDM's current market cap of just over $2 million USD means liquidity remains far too thin for significant corridor volume. Pakistan and Bangladesh are also meaningful remittance destinations from Australia. An AUD-denominated stablecoin removes one conversion step compared with existing crypto remittance flows that route through USD.

For institutional clients in Africa, the token's ERC-20 format and regulated status also reduce integration friction. South Africa and Australia maintain active trade links across the mining and education sectors, and AUD-denominated commodity contracts represent a natural use case for OTC desks seeking a regulated on-chain settlement asset. Flowdesk's market-making role is expected to extend AUDM's reach to the African institutional desks that handle those contracts.

What Comes Next

Macropod faces direct competition from AUDD, an AUD stablecoin issued by AUDC on the Stellar and Hedera blockchains that has already processed more than $1 billion in organic transactions and also holds an AFSL.

At its current scale, AUDM functions more as proof-of-concept infrastructure than a widely adopted payment instrument. The fundraise appears aimed at building the market-making capacity, exchange integrations, and institutional relationships needed to reach meaningful volume before the ASIC exemption window closes in mid-2028.