XDC Network says it is working with AUDDapt, a grant program linked to AUDC, to help Australian small and medium-sized enterprises access modern digital payment infrastructure. In an interview published in partnership with Bitcoin.com News, Sean White of XDC Network argued that many of Australia’s businesses still rely on outdated payment rails, even though they represent a major share of national economic activity. The initiative is designed to address that gap by pairing funding and technical support with direct access to blockchain-based settlement tools.
According to the interview, Australia is home to around 2.5 million small and medium-sized businesses. XDC’s view is that these firms remain underserved by legacy payment systems that have changed little over decades. For businesses engaged in cross-border commerce, the consequences are familiar: higher costs, longer settlement times, and limited visibility into where funds are in the payment chain at any given moment.
Targeting cost, speed, and visibility
White identified three core pain points in SME payments: cost, speed, and transparency. Traditional banking infrastructure often routes international transfers through multiple intermediaries, with each participant adding fees and processing delays. As a result, a transaction that should theoretically move in minutes can stretch into days. Just as important, businesses often do not have reliable real-time visibility into the status of their funds while they are in transit.
XDC Network says its blockchain infrastructure is built to address these issues more directly. White stated that transactions on XDC can settle in seconds and at a fraction of the cost of traditional channels, while also offering a more transparent process from end to end. Through the AUDDapt-XDC pathway, businesses that qualify can access that infrastructure alongside support intended to lower the operational barriers to adoption.
The interview positions the initiative not as a crypto-native experiment, but as a practical payments upgrade for real businesses. White emphasized that the program is not meant only for technical specialists. Instead, it is aimed at Australian businesses that regularly move money across borders and want to do so faster and more efficiently without having to build blockchain expertise from scratch.
The role of AUDD in the program
A central feature of the AUDDapt model is AUDD, a stablecoin that the interview describes as being backed 1:1 by the Australian dollar and issued by regulated entity AUDC. White argued that this local regulatory alignment is one of the initiative’s key differentiators. In his view, many digital payment solutions ask businesses to transact using foreign-issued digital currencies that may sit outside domestic compliance frameworks, creating uncertainty for firms that need trusted and familiar financial rails.
By contrast, AUDD is presented as a locally regulated digital currency designed specifically for Australian businesses. That matters, White said, because the country is at an important moment in the development of digital payments policy. Businesses are watching regulators closely, and confidence in which digital currencies can be used safely and compliantly remains a major issue for adoption.
The interview also pointed to broader legislative developments in Australia. White said amendments to the country’s Corporations Act have helped create a clearer framework for digital asset platforms, offering businesses, investors, and regulators a more concrete path forward. In that context, AUDDapt’s operation within an existing compliance structure is being framed as a way to give SMEs more confidence to test digital settlement tools while rules are becoming more defined.
Beyond grants: access to infrastructure
XDC Network described its role in AUDDapt as that of a strategic infrastructure partner. Businesses accepted into the XDC track are expected to receive more than funding alone. They also gain access to XDC’s blockchain ecosystem, technical guidance, and a payments framework that the company says has already been deployed at institutional scale in other markets.
White said blockchain changes how money moves by compressing settlement times from days to seconds and reducing fee burdens that can erode margins on cross-border transactions. For smaller firms, these savings can be meaningful, especially when international suppliers, customers, or treasury operations are involved. He also stressed the importance of real-time transaction visibility, an area where smaller businesses have historically had fewer tools than large institutions.
XDC further argues that its network’s broader footprint in supply chain, trade finance, and global payments gives SMEs access to infrastructure that has previously been more associated with enterprise-scale users. The pitch behind the initiative is that the technology is already mature enough to support serious financial operations; the challenge now is making that technology accessible to businesses that have traditionally been excluded from modern payment rails.
A broader test case for SME finance
One of the more notable themes in the interview was White’s argument that the divide between large institutions and SMEs in payments is no longer a technology problem. In his telling, the tools already exist, and what has been missing is a practical framework to bring them within reach of smaller firms. AUDDapt, he suggested, is an opportunity to demonstrate what SME finance could look like if modern digital infrastructure were made available in a compliant and user-friendly way.
The underlying goal appears to be broader than supporting a single cohort of businesses. XDC wants to show that if a real Australian SME can settle cross-border payments in seconds and at materially lower cost, then the case for rethinking how SME payments work becomes much stronger. In other words, the program is being positioned as a proof point for a larger shift in how digital money and blockchain infrastructure might be used in the everyday financial operations of smaller businesses.
White also linked this ambition to Australia’s evolving policy environment, suggesting that the country is moving toward a more fully digital economy. While the interview did not provide hard adoption figures or outcomes from the program yet, it framed current regulatory momentum as a timely backdrop for experimentation with compliant digital payment tools.
Who XDC and AUDC are
XDC Network describes itself as an open-source, EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain focused on payments, trade finance, and real-world asset use cases. The network says it offers high throughput, low fees, enterprise-grade security, and ISO 20022 compatibility, a notable feature for interoperability with global financial messaging and payment systems.
AUDC, meanwhile, is presented as the regulated issuer of AUDD, an Australian dollar-backed stablecoin headquartered in Melbourne. The company says its mission is to build trusted and compliant digital currency infrastructure for businesses and consumers in Australia.
Taken together, the interview suggests that the AUDDapt partnership is intended to bring regulated digital money, blockchain settlement, and grant-backed onboarding into one package for SMEs. Whether that model can scale beyond an initial group of participants remains to be seen, but XDC’s message is clear: smaller businesses should not have to rely indefinitely on payment systems that are slower, costlier, and less transparent than the technology now allows.