# SEBI Demat 2.0 settles tokenized bonds in e₹ > SEBI launched Demat 2.0 on Sept. 10, 2026: corporate bonds issued as tokens on a depository-owned ledger and settled atomically in RBI wholesale e₹. REC, L&T and IIFL raised ₹1,025 crore. - **Source:** https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-09-18-sebi-demat-2-0-tokenized-bonds/ - **Published:** 2026-09-18 - **Category:** News - **Author:** Mateo - **Tags:** regulation, banks, infrastructure, institutional, corporate, fintech - **Also published in:** [Español](https://ptycoin.com/es/posts/2026-09-18-sebi-demat-2-0-tokenized-bonds/) --- **SEBI** announced **Demat 2.0** on **10 September 2026**, a regulatory-sandbox pilot that records corporate bonds as tokens on a permissioned ledger owned by India's depositories and moves the cash leg in the **Reserve Bank of India's** wholesale digital rupee (**e₹**). RBI Governor **Sanjay Malhotra** and SEBI Chair **Tuhin Kanta Pandey** presented the project together at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. [Press release 56/2026](https://www.sebi.gov.in/media-and-notifications/press-releases/sep-2026/successful-launch-of-demat-2-0-pilot-project-for-tokenised-corporate-bonds_104418.html) and the [PDF notice](https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/attachdocs/sep-2026/1789039783353.pdf) set the facts. [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/11/india-starts-tokenizing-usd620-billion-corporate-bond-market-with-digital-rupee-settlement) and [The Hindu Business Line](https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/sebi-rbi-launch-demat-20-pilot-for-tokenised-corporate-bonds/article71452467.ece) match the launch date, the three issuers, and the ₹1,025 crore total. ## How Demat 2.0 records the bond A demat account is the electronic holding Indian investors already use for stocks and bonds. Demat 2.0 is an extension of that account. The [FAQ issued with the release](https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/faqfiles/sep-2026/1789049630065.pdf) says the token is the corporate bond: same ISIN, same coupon, same maturity, same investor rights. The legal character stays put. Tokenisation here is a new ownership record. The ledger is private and permissioned. Statutory depositories own it. The FAQ says Market Infrastructure Institutions operate it, with technology support from **NPCI**, and that the first nodes sit at the depositories and the stock exchanges. Authorised market-infrastructure nodes run the network. The funds leg is RBI wholesale **e₹**, connected through the **Unified Market Interface (UMI)**. Bond and rupees are meant to move together (atomic delivery-versus-payment): both legs settle, or neither does. SEBI says that closes the usual gap in which one side can deliver while the other is still waiting. Issuers are told they can receive proceeds the same day as bidding, against the two-to-three-day wait that is common now. Coupon and redemption payments can be written into a smart contract on that ledger, so e₹ hits the bondholder's CBDC wallet on the due date without the issuer's registrar pulling a holder list and routing a separate bank payment. Pandey told [The Hindu Business Line](https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/sebi-rbi-launch-demat-20-pilot-for-tokenised-corporate-bonds/article71452467.ece) the design is "regulatory and not a new asset class," and that there is "no parallel market" and "no liquidity divide." Credit ratings, debenture trustees, listing, and disclosure rules still apply. The pilot sits in SEBI's regulatory sandbox. ## Three issuers, ₹1,025 crore Stage I is already booking paper. SEBI lists three completed issues: 1. **REC Limited**, a public-sector non-bank finance company (NBFC), on **7 September 2026**: ₹500 crore from **18** investors. [The Hindu Business Line](https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/sebi-rbi-launch-demat-20-pilot-for-tokenised-corporate-bonds/article71452467.ece) reports a **7.30%** coupon and a tenor of **one year and nine months**. [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/11/india-starts-tokenizing-usd620-billion-corporate-bond-market-with-digital-rupee-settlement) puts that raise at about **$56 million**. 2. **L&T Limited** (Larsen & Toubro) on **9 September 2026**: ₹500 crore from **4** investors. 3. **IIFL**, the private NBFC named in the SEBI release, on **9 September 2026**: ₹25 crore from **1** investor. CoinDesk identifies the issuer as **IIFL Finance** and puts the raise at about **$2.8 million**. Combined: **₹1,025 crore**. One crore is ten million rupees, so that is ₹10.25 billion. SEBI says first-phase issuances are still ongoing. Later phases are supposed to connect secondary buying and selling through existing request-for-quote (RFQ) platforms, then open a path for retail investors. Until secondary trading is on, the FAQ describes an interim peer-to-peer or demat-to-demat transfer, with the payment leg possibly completed outside atomic settlement. [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/11/india-starts-tokenizing-usd620-billion-corporate-bond-market-with-digital-rupee-settlement) describes India as starting to tokenize a **$620 billion** corporate-bond market. That market-size figure is CoinDesk's, not SEBI's. SEBI's own comparison is with overseas tokenisation pilots (Project Helvetia III in Switzerland, Project Evergreen in Hong Kong, and various issuer-led digital bonds). The Board's claim is that India is the first place where corporate bonds have been issued natively on a distributed ledger whose ownership record sits with statutory depositories and whose cash leg settles in central-bank digital currency, all inside the existing regulated market. Treat that as SEBI's uniqueness claim. ## The keys stay with the depositories Investors do not open a new demat account or repeat KYC. They enable Demat 2.0 with their depository and hold a wholesale e₹ wallet at a participating bank. Issuers need the CBDC wallet to receive proceeds and to pay coupons; they do not need a Demat 2.0 account. The FAQ is blunt about custody: **the depositories hold and manage the private keys** on behalf of investors. You do not get a seed phrase. Freeze, attachment, and other legal controls that already apply to a demat holding apply to the tokenised holding too. The depository remains the authoritative record of beneficial ownership under the Depositories Act, 1996. That is the product: faster settlement and automated servicing inside the institutions India already uses to hold securities. If you want a bond on a wallet only you can open, this pilot does a different job. For a reader watching bank stablecoins elsewhere, the cash leg is the split. [U.S. Bank's USBDC pilot](/en/posts/2026-09-12-us-bank-usbdc-stellar-pilot/) moved a bank-issued dollar token on public Stellar, inside the bank's own entities. Demat 2.0 keeps the rupee as wholesale CBDC and the bond record on a permissioned depository ledger. ## Takeaway On 10 September SEBI and the RBI put a live sandbox in front of the market: three corporate-bond issues already booked for **₹1,025 crore**, Stage I still open, secondary RFQ trading and retail access described as later phases. Watch whether more issuers allot on the flagged ISINs, whether the RFQ link turns on, and what a coupon payment looks like in an e₹ wallet on a real due date. This is product news about a regulated Indian bond record. It is not advice to buy REC, L&T, or IIFL paper, hold e₹, or treat a demat balance as an asset you custody yourself. --- ## Keep reading - [ikigii, Towerbank's Panama-licensed banking app, lets you borrow dollars or stablecoins against Bitcoin at a 50% loan-to-value with a margin call at 65%, so the liquidity arrives without selling the coins](https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-09-11-ikigii-towerbank-btc-loans/index.md): ikigii is Towerbank's SBP-supervised Panama app: borrow USD or stables against BTC at 50% LTV, margin call at 65%, dollar account, Visa debit, and bank custody instead of an offshore desk. - [OranjeBTC's DIGY11 packages Strategy's STRC and Strive's SATA preferreds into a B3 monthly-income ETF in reais, with FX hedging and a CDI+3–5 target that has not paid a first coupon yet](https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-08-28-oranjebtc-digy11-b3-income-etf/index.md): DIGY11 is OranjeBTC's first non-treasury product: a B3 ETF of bitcoin-treasury preferreds (STRC/SATA), monthly reais distributions, FX hedge, and a waitlist ahead of a planned September debut. - [Koywe: LatAm on/off-ramp API for Pix, SPEI, PSE](https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-08-14-koywe-latam-on-off-ramp-api/index.md): Koywe is the Chilean-founded YC W23 API that turns local rails like Pix, SPEI, and PSE into fiat-to-crypto on/off-ramps for LatAm businesses, with multi-country treasury tools. --- Source: PTYcoin — https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-09-18-sebi-demat-2-0-tokenized-bonds/. 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