India's SEBI Demat 2.0 pilot successfully tokenized over $100 million in corporate bonds with wholesale CBDC settlement.
Regulation & Gov ·
India's Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) launched its Demat 2.0 pilot program, which facilitated three issuers in raising over $100 million through tokenized corporate bonds, with settlement conducted using wholesale central bank digital currency. The pilot represents a step toward integrating blockchain-based securities issuance and settlement infrastructure into India's existing depository system.
The initiative tokenizes traditional fixed-income instruments on a digital ledger while leveraging the central bank's wholesale CBDC to clear transactions, combining conventional financial assets with distributed ledger rails. This approach allows institutional participants to transact bonds in a digitized format while maintaining regulatory oversight and CBDC-backed settlement finality.
The pilot's early scale—surpassing $100 million in issuances across three entities—signals institutional adoption of the framework, though key details about the duration of the pilot, participating banks or custodians, and timeline for broader rollout remain unclear.