India plans first tokenized bond issue in September

India is preparing to issue its first tokenized corporate bond as early as September 2026, marking one of the largest emerging-market experiments in bringing blockchain infrastructure to traditional debt markets. The pilot, overseen by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), will use distributed ledger technology to test faster settlements, automated coupon payments, and integration with the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale digital currency, the e-rupee. For a country whose corporate bond market now exceeds ₹60 trillion (roughly $700B) in outstanding volume, even incremental efficiency gains could move serious money. What SEBI is actually building SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey first outlined the tokenization initiative in May 2026 during the CareEdge Debt Market Summit. The pilot is expected to run for six to nine months, long enough to stress-test smart contract automation under real market conditions without committing to a permanent overhaul. The project isn’t trying to build a new exchange or create a parallel trading venue. Instead, it layers DLT on top of India’s existing depository infrastructure. Both of India’s central securities depositories, NSDL and CDSL,...