India’s first tokenized corporate bond is planned for September, with state-owned power financier REC issuing notes worth less than 5 billion rupees ($57 million), Reuters reported on Monday, citing three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
What Reuters Reported
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing and confidential, according to Reuters. The offering is expected to be unveiled at an annual financial technology event in Mumbai next month, one source said. India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be used to buy the bonds, another said.
The offering would be limited at the pilot stage. “The offering would be made available to only a select group of investors,” one source told Reuters. Reuters said it could not establish who those investors are.
The Crypto Times has contacted REC at 12:21 pm UTC; this report will be updated with any response.
The Two-Wallet Structure
Investors will need two digital accounts to participate, the sources said: a wholesale CBDC wallet provided by a bank and a new electronic securities wallet.
Indian depositories are building that second component, called DEMAT 2.0, which would record bond holdings on a distributed ledger. “Subsequent trades can take place only between participants that hold both compatible CBDC and securities wallets,” one source said.
The bonds carry an initial three-month lock-in, and exchanges are expected to develop a secondary market by December, one source said. The securities will not trade on the conventional electronic book provider platform.
Where the CBDC Leg Comes From
The settlement side of the structure is not new infrastructure. In its annual report for FY26, published in May, the RBI disclosed it had developed the Unified Markets Interface, described as a multi-layer platform to facilitate tokenization of financial assets while using wholesale CBDC to improve settlement efficiency. The central bank said a pilot for the issuance and trading of certificates of deposit in tokenized form had begun on that platform, settling through wholesale CBDC.
The RBI has also run wholesale CBDC settlement for government securities and interbank call money, and RBI Chief General Manager Suvendu Pati said in October 2025 that the central bank was examining commercial paper as a further instrument.
A corporate bond issued to CBDC-holding investors would connect the RBI’s settlement track to SEBI’s issuance track for the first time.
The Timeline Question
SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey first announced the corporate bond tokenization pilot on May 26 at the CareEdge Debt Market Summit in Mumbai, saying it would start on a limited scale over six to nine months. Measured from that date, that window closes between late November 2026 and late February 2027.
SEBI’s annual report for 2025-26, released in August, listed the pilot among forward priorities and expanded its stated scope to include faster settlement, programmability through smart contracts, and integration with CBDC-based settlement mechanisms. The report did not provide a revised timeline, and SEBI has not publicly named participating issuers, exchanges, or depositories. A September issuance would fall before the earliest point in the range Pandey gave.
The Mumbai Event
Reuters did not name the financial technology event where the offering is expected to be unveiled. The Global Fintech Fest 2026 is scheduled for September 8 to 11 at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai, organized by the Payments Council of India, the National Payments Corporation of India, and the Fintech Convergence Council. Its stated theme lists tokenization as one of three technology pillars alongside agentic AI and quantum. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and SEBI Chairman Pandey are both listed among announced speakers.
The RBI used the October 2025 edition of the same event to disclose the launch date of its deposit tokenization pilot.
Existing DLT Footprint in Indian Debt
Depositories NSDL and CDSL have used blockchain-based systems for security creation and covenant monitoring in non-convertible securities since SEBI’s 2021 circular on security and covenant monitoring using distributed ledger technology. Those systems track instrument lifecycle rather than record ownership or settle trades.
India’s corporate bond market stood at approximately 59 lakh crore rupees, or around 16% of GDP, according to figures cited in SEBI’s disclosures. SEBI has identified limited secondary market liquidity and dependence on private placements as structural features of that market.
Internationally, corporate digital bond issuance remains limited relative to sovereign and supranational issuance. Siemens has issued digital bonds totaling 360 million euros, and Korea’s POSCO International issued a $100 million digital bond in Hong Kong.
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