On September 10, India kicked off Demat 2.0—a pilot project for issuing tokenized corporate bonds with settlements handled in the digital rupee. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) broke the news. This initiative, put together with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), was unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.

Demat 2.0: What’s New?

Demat 2.0 is a trial run for using tokenization to issue corporate bonds and settle trades using India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). The project is all about testing the tech stack for launching tokenized securities and settling them in government-backed digital cash.

Who’s Involved?

The pilot has brought in some heavy hitters: depositories NSDL and CDSL, stock exchanges NSE and BSE, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and the National Payments Corporation of India. These players are powering the infrastructure for custody, trading, and payments in the pilot program.

Early Results

By the time of the launch, three companies had already issued bonds worth a total of ₹10.25 billion through the new system.