Securities and Exchange Board of India
SEBI and the RBI launched Demat 2.0, a pilot to issue, hold, trade and settle corporate bonds as tokens on a depository-owned ledger, with the cash leg in wholesale CBDC.
- Status
- Live
- Announced
- (announcement)
- Stage
- Pilot
- Chain or network
- Depository-run DLT
- Participants
- Reserve Bank of India, NPCI, REC Limited, L&T Limited, IIFL
- Next review
Scorecard
As of the review on . How pilots are scored
| Ledger | Private ledger |
|---|---|
| Settlement | CBDC on the ledger |
| Access | Whitelisted institutions or investors |
| Legal standing | Sandbox or exemption |
| Scale | Repeat |
What they said they would do
- OpenStage II: enable secondary trading through existing RFQ platforms and extend access to retail investors.
- OpenStage III: possibly extend nodes to credit rating agencies, depository participants and other regulated entities, and consider other instruments.
Review history
Live Pilot
Three launch issuances: REC ₹500 crore to 18 investors on 7 September 2026, L&T ₹500 crore to 4 investors and IIFL ₹25 crore to 1 investor on 9 September, ₹1,025 crore in all. Stage I issuances are ongoing. The pilot runs under SEBI's regulatory sandbox.
Evidence: sebi.gov.in, sebi.gov.in, rbi.org.in
What was announced
On 10 September 2026 the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced (PR No. 56/2026) the launch of Demat 2.0, a pilot for tokenised corporate bonds. The SEBI Chairman and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor made the announcement jointly at the Global Fintech Fest, and the Governor called it a joint initiative with SEBI. The FAQ sets out three stages: institutional issuance with servicing on the ledger, then secondary trading and retail access, then more node operators and instruments. No stage has a date.
How it works
Each bond is issued as a token on a private, permissioned distributed ledger owned by the depositories, so ledger is private. The market infrastructure institutions operate it, with NPCI providing technology support, and the depositories and stock exchanges run the first nodes. Issuance still goes through the exchanges’ electronic bidding platforms. The ledger connects to the RBI’s wholesale CBDC through the Unified Markets Interface, so bond and cash settle atomically and settlement is cbdc. Coupons and redemptions pay into bondholders’ CBDC wallets by smart contract.
Investors need an enabled demat account and a wholesale CBDC wallet with a participating bank, and the depositories hold the private keys, so access is whitelisted. The FAQ says “the token is the corporate bond” and the depository remains the authoritative ownership record, which reads as native. The pilot runs under SEBI’s regulatory sandbox with relaxations for a defined scope and period, so legal is sandbox.
Record so far
Three issuers raised ₹1,025 crore in the first three days: REC (₹500 crore, 18 investors, 7 September 2026), L&T (₹500 crore, 4 investors, 9 September) and IIFL (₹25 crore, 1 investor, 9 September). SEBI says Stage I issuances are ongoing. Until secondary trading is enabled, investors can exit through a demat-to-demat transfer on request, with the cash paid outside the atomic settlement.
What to watch
The start of Stage II, which would bring secondary trades on request-for-quote (RFQ) platforms and retail investors, and move access toward open. More issuers in Stage I. Any exit from the sandbox into a standing framework, which would change legal to native and open the way to production.