News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
India's securities regulator, constituted in 1988 and statutory since 1992, which on 10 September 2026 launched Demat 2.0: corporate bonds issued as native tokens on a ledger owned by the depositories, with the cash leg settled in the central bank's wholesale digital currency and the statutory depository still the record of ownership.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India regulates the Indian securities market. Its own establishment page gives two dates: it was constituted as a non-statutory body on 12 April 1988 by a resolution of the Government of India, and it became a statutory body when the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 came into force on 30 January 1992. The preamble it prints describes its basic functions as 'to protect the interests of investors in securities and to promote the development of, and to regulate the securities market and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto', which is three mandates in one sentence and is why its rulemaking runs from retail disclosure to the plumbing of settlement. It supervises the exchanges, the clearing corporations and the two depositories, NSDL and CDSL, which it groups with them as market infrastructure institutions, and it runs a regulatory sandbox under which relaxations may be granted for a defined scope and period. On 10 September 2026 it announced Demat 2.0, a pilot in which corporate bonds are issued as native digital tokens on a private permissioned ledger owned by the depositories, with the funds leg settled in the Reserve Bank's wholesale central bank digital currency through the central bank's Unified Market Interface. The announcement was made jointly with the Governor of the Reserve Bank at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, and by that date three issuers had raised Rs 1,025 crore: REC Limited on 7 September, L&T Limited and IIFL on the 9th. What the pilot deliberately does not change is the legal architecture. SEBI's own FAQ says a tokenized corporate bond remains a security under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, keeps the same ISIN, rating, covenants and investor rights, that the depository remains the authoritative record of beneficial ownership under the Depositories Act, 1996, and that the depositories hold and manage investors' private keys for them. The regulator's word for what changes is narrow: the technology used to maintain the ownership record.
Developments in which Securities and Exchange Board of India is a named party, newest first.
Three issuers have raised Rs 1,025 crore, about $107m, in bonds issued as native tokens on a ledger owned by India's depositories, with the cash leg settled in wholesale CBDC. SEBI claims a world first and the claim is narrowly drawn.
SEBI and the Reserve Bank announced Demat 2.0 at the Global Fintech Fest. Three issuers had raised Rs 1,025 crore in bonds created as native tokens on a ledger owned by the depositories, with the funds leg settled atomically in wholesale CBDC. The depository remains the authoritative record of ownership and holds investors' private keys.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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