On Thursday, India’s financial market regulator revealed that a trio of issuers secured ₹1,025 crore ($107.2 million) via tokenized corporate bonds as part of its Demat 2.0 trial initiative.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India mentioned in an official statement that the network leverages distributed ledger technology for the issuance, custody, and settlement of corporate debt.
As per the release, REC Ltd. initiated the pilot on September 7 by securing ₹500 crore ($52.3 million) backed by 18 participants. L&T Ltd. proceeded on September 9 with an identical total from four buyers, whereas IIFL secured ₹25 crore ($2.6 million) from a single participant on that same day.
SEBI noted that the framework supporting the Demat 2.0 test registers corporate notes as native digital tokens maintained on a shared ledger managed by depositories. It links with the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency via the central institution’s Unified Market Interface, enabling instantaneous atomic settlement for both the asset and monetary legs.
The authority indicated that this setup minimizes the clearing hazard linked to distinct security and monetary movements. Furthermore, it might grant issuers immediate access to funds on the bidding day, contrasting with the standard two-to-three-day timeline under traditional workflows.
“On the shared ledger, the details of bondholder are visible to all authorized institutions at once, and payment in e₹ reaches the bondholders’ CBDC wallets on the due date,” the regulator said. “Taken together, these features are expected to make the issue, settlement, and servicing of corporate bonds faster, more efficient, and less error‑prone.”
The financial authority stressed that the testing phase does not establish a distinct category of corporate debt. Digital bonds maintain identical International Securities Identification Numbers, issuer responsibilities, interest rates, expiration timelines, conditions, credit assessments, and purchaser entitlements compared to standard dematerialized debt instruments, the bulletin explained.
The program unfolds across three distinct stages. The initial phase focuses on institutional placements, while secondary market exchanges and public participation are planned for subsequent tiers housed inside SEBI’s Regulatory Sandbox.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-09-11-indias-sebi-demat-2-0-pilot-debuts-with-over-100-million-in-tokenized-bonds-414252.
