raised through tokenised bonds, settled in the digital rupee
Tokenised bonds raise ₹1,025 crore, settled in digital rupee
India just raised ₹1,025 crore through tokenised bonds.
REC (Rural Electrification Corporation Limited) kicked off the experiment with a ₹500 crore tokenised bond issue that attracted bids about 1.6x the issue size.
These bonds can even be settled using RBI's digital rupee, allowing the bond and money to move at the same time through atomic delivery-versus-payment.
Eventually, coupons and redemptions could also be automated. But we all know that ₹1,025 crore is tiny compared with India's overall bond market.
We could very well see a settlement problem in the bond market become a liquidity opportunity and attract more retail participation!
3 issuers raised ₹1,025 crore in India’s first tokenised bonds
The first round of SEBI’s Demat 2.0 pilot, settled in RBI’s wholesale digital rupee, so the bond and the money move together or not at all.
₹ CRORE
RaisedBids received
1.6x the ₹500 crore accepted, at 7.30%
Bids for L&T and IIFL Finance are reported by IFR only. REC headlines its issue as ~8x, measured against a ₹100 crore base issue.
SEBI press release, 10 Sep 2026; REC; IFR · 7 and 9 Sep 2026
₹1,025 crore is 0.02% of India’s corporate bond market
Both parts are drawn to the same scale. The pilot is for institutions only for now; retail access is a later stage.
₹ CRORE
- Tokenised bonds1,025 0.02%
- Rest of corporate bonds outstanding5,156,929 99.98%
Also 0.11% of the ₹9 lakh crore of bonds placed in FY26
Corporate bonds outstanding are SEBI’s latest published figure, for 31 December 2024, so the share today is smaller still. G-secs and state loans outstanding are another ₹200 lakh crore.
SEBI, corporate bonds outstanding; SEBI PR 56/2026 · Dec 2024 and Sep 2026