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 a pilot program for Demat 2.0 that successfully tokenized over $100 million in corporate bonds, with three issuers participating in the initiative. Settlement of these tokenized instruments occurred using wholesale central bank digital currency, marking a significant step in India's exploration of blockchain-based securities infrastructure.
The pilot demonstrates the mechanics of moving traditional debt instruments onto a distributed ledger while maintaining settlement through a wholesale CBDC rather than conventional banking channels. This approach allows issuers and investors to interact with corporate bonds in a tokenized format while retaining central bank settlement assurances.
The long-term adoption pathway remains unclear, including whether the pilot will expand beyond the three participating issuers, what regulatory adjustments may follow, and how market participants will integrate tokenized bond infrastructure into existing trading and custody systems. The extent to which this model influences broader securities market digitization in India or influences similar initiatives elsewhere has yet to be determined.