India’s Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has launched Demat 2.0, a pilot that places corporate bonds and cash settlement on linked digital rails. REC Limited, L&T Limited and IIFL completed tokenized bond issuances on Sept. 7 and Sept. 9, moving a combined ₹1,025 crore, or about $107 million, through the first three transactions. The bonds are issued as native digital tokens on a private, permissioned ledger, while payment uses the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale digital rupee. The linked system enables atomic delivery-versus-payment, meaning the bond and cash settle together or neither transaction completes. The tokens retain the conventional bonds’ ISIN, coupon, maturity, covenants, rating, security, legal status and investor rights, while depositories remain the authoritative owners’ records and continue to manage private keys. Stage I covers institutional issuance and ledger-based asset servicing, with further issuance ongoing. Secondary trading and retail participation are reserved for Stage II; interim transfers can occur through peer-to-peer or demat-to-demat mechanisms, with payment made through digital-rupee or conventional banking channels.