Issuers raise $107M through tokenized corporate bonds in India's SEBI Demat 2.0 pilot
Three companies sold ₹1,025 crore ($107.2 million) of corporate bonds as digital tokens in the first run of Demat 2.0, India’s regulator-led pilot.
The pilot is the first real test of issuing and settling Indian corporate debt on a shared digital ledger within the country’s current market system.
What milestone did India accomplish?
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has referred to India as “the first country” to launch a project like the Demat 2.0 pilot. Under this system, corporate bonds are issued, held, and settled as digital tokens on a distributed ledger that is owned by India’s two statutory depositories, NSDL and CDSL.
The cash leg of each transaction is settled in the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency, known as the e₹-W. Meanwhile, the bond and the payment are linked through the RBI’s Unified Market Interface.
SEBI disclosed the figures from the now complete first stage of the pilot on Thursday. State-owned power financier REC Ltd. went first on September 7, pulling in ₹500 crore ($52.3 million) from 18 investors.
… Continue reading the full article at the original source below.
