India Plans First Tokenised Bond Issue in September
India is set to launch its first tokenized corporate bond issue next month, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The bonds will be issued by state-owned power financier REC and are expected to test blockchain technology for instant settlement of transactions. This move aligns India with markets like Europe and Hong Kong in adopting digital securities. The offering is projected to amount to less than 5 billion rupees ($57 million) and will likely debut at an annual financial technology event in Mumbai. Investors will need two digital accounts—a wholesale CBDC wallet from a bank and a new electronic securities wallet—to participate, with the latter being developed by depositories as part of India's DEMAT 2.0 initiative. The central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) will be used to purchase these bonds during the pilot phase, which is limited to select investors only. The initial offering includes a three-month lock-in period and plans for developing a secondary market by December.
Topics: blockchain central bank digital currency (CBDC) India financial market innovation tokenized bonds