India’s securities regulator said three issuers have raised ₹1,025 crore ($107.2 million) through tokenized corporate bonds under its Demat 2.0 pilot.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said the pilot uses distributed ledger technology to issue, hold and settle corporate bonds. REC Ltd. was the first issuer on Sept. 7, raising ₹500 crore ($52.3 million) from 18 investors. L&T Ltd. raised another ₹500 crore from four investors on Sept. 9, while IIFL raised ₹25 crore ($2.6 million) from one investor the same day.
The system records the bonds as digital tokens on a ledger operated by India’s securities depositories. It is connected to the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale CBDC through its Unified Market Interface, allowing the bond and payment to settle at the same time.
SEBI said this could reduce settlement risks and allow issuers to receive funds on the same day, compared with the usual two to three days under the existing system.
The regulator also stressed that tokenized bonds are not a new type of security. They keep the same ISIN, issuer obligations, coupon, maturity, rating and investor rights as traditional dematerialized bonds.
The Demat 2.0 pilot will be rolled out in three stages. The first phase focuses on institutional issuance, while secondary trading and retail access are planned for later stages under SEBI’s Regulatory Sandbox.
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