India has started testing blockchain-based issuance and settlement for corporate bonds through the “Demat 2.0” pilot, a joint initiative involving the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Under the pilot, corporate bonds are issued as digital tokens and settled using the wholesale digital rupee. Three companies have already raised approximately $107 million through the initiative, according to Decrypt. The pilot targets India’s corporate bond market, valued at about $620 billion, and links tokenized securities with the country’s central bank digital currency infrastructure. The development marks an early test of how digital assets could be used in India’s traditional capital markets, although the supplied information does not specify the participating companies or the terms of the bond offerings.
