India's Securities and Exchange Board of India announced Thursday the debut of its Demat 2.0 pilot program, facilitating the issuance of ₹1,025 crore ($107.2 million) in tokenized corporate bonds.
Three issuers participated: REC, a public infrastructure finance company, raised 5 billion rupees from 18 investors in the program's initial issuance. Larsen & Toubro secured 5 billion rupees, while IIFL placed 250 million rupees.
The program uses distributed ledger technology and smart contracts for bond issuance and servicing, with settlement conducted on the RBI's wholesale central bank digital currency. This design aims to streamline capital flows and reduce settlement times for institutional debt.
For on-chain participants, the pilot establishes a regulated pathway for institutional-grade debt to be issued and settled on a distributed ledger. The RBI wholesale CBDC integration reduces counterparty risk and provides atomic finality for transactions, features that can draw liquidity into regulated RWA offerings.
