India Reportedly Set to Pilot Tokenized Corporate Bonds in September Using Wholesale CBDC

India is preparing to trial its first tokenized corporate bond issuance in September, in a pilot that would link blockchain-based securities with settlement in the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to Reuters. Reuters reported Monday, citing three people familiar with the plans, that REC Limited—a state-controlled power-sector infrastructure financier—intends to issue tokenized bonds worth less than 5 billion Indian rupees (about $57 million). The pilot is expected to be limited to a small group of investors initially, with a broader rollout dependent on test results. The program may be announced at an annual financial technology event in Mumbai in September, the report said. Under the reported structure, investors would purchase the tokenized bonds using India's wholesale CBDC, aiming for end-to-end integration in which both the securities record and the payment leg settle through digital rails backed by the central bank. Participation may require two separate digital accounts: a wholesale CBDC wallet provided by a bank, and a dedicated electronic securities wallet designed to hold and reflect tokenized bond positions. India's securities depositories are developing the securities wallet as part of an effort Reuters described as "DEMAT 2.0," expected to record bond ownership using distributed ledger technology. Reuters also said the RBI and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) are working with depositories on the initiative, signaling a regulator-led approach to building infrastructure for tokenized issuance within existing market frameworks. Reuters reported that the initial issuance is expected to carry a three-month lockup period. After that, exchanges are expected to work toward enabling secondary trading by December. The early lockup would limit liquidity at the outset, while a target for secondary trading points to an ambition to move beyond issuance-only experimentation. Cointelegraph said it contacted the RBI, SEBI, and REC for comment but had not received responses at the time of publication. Without official confirmation, details such as the issuance size, investor access, wallet requirements, and the secondary-market timeline should be treated as reported plans rather than finalized policy.