REC Ltd, India’s state-run power financier, is soliciting investor bids for a tokenized corporate bond sale of up to 5 billion rupees, or about $53 million, in what would be the country’s first issuance of its kind. The notes mature in May 2028, and investors can purchase them only through the Reserve Bank of India’s central bank digital currency. The pilot begins with 1 billion rupees and includes a 4 billion rupee greenshoe option, according to the existing issue plan. Institutional investors must hold active securities accounts and RBI wholesale CBDC wallets, with a three-month lock-in before secondary-market trading. Ownership is recorded through SEBI’s DEMAT 2.0 wallet, while settlement uses wholesale CBDC wallets and is designed to enable atomic, near-instant delivery-versus-payment. The initiative forms part of India’s effort to deepen a corporate bond market equivalent to about 17% of gross domestic product. SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey has said tokenization could accelerate settlement, improve liquidity and enhance transparency. Tokenized issuance is also expanding across Asia, including Hong Kong Mortgage Corp.’s HK$8.5 billion digital bond sale in June, while the global tokenized-asset market is valued at about $39 billion.