India's SEBI Pilot Program Raises Over $10 Million Through Tokenized Bonds

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has reported that its Demat 2 pilot program successfully raised a total of 102.5 million rupees, equivalent to approximately 10.72 million USD, through the issuance of tokenized corporate bonds. This innovative pilot program leverages distributed ledger technology to facilitate the issuance, holding, and settlement of corporate bonds, marking a significant step in India's financial technology landscape.

The pilot saw its first issuance on September 7, when REC Ltd. raised 50 million rupees (about 5.23 million USD) from 18 investors. Following this, L&T Ltd. raised a similar amount from four investors on September 9, and IIFL secured 25 million rupees (approximately 2.6 million USD) from a single investor on the same day. SEBI highlighted that the pilot's infrastructure allows for the atomic settlement of bonds and funds through a unified market interface linked to the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency, significantly reducing the typical settlement time from two to three days to the same day as bidding.

SEBI emphasized that the tokenized bonds issued under this pilot maintain the same characteristics as traditional corporate bonds, including ISIN, issuer obligations, coupon rates, maturity, covenants, ratings, and investor rights. The pilot will be executed in three phases, with the initial phase focusing on institutional issuance, while subsequent phases will address secondary trading and retail access within SEBI's regulatory sandbox.

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Source: KLEA News