India’s markets regulator SEBI is preparing a pilot programme using blockchain technology to facilitate faster, more transparent trading of corporate bonds, potentially transforming India’s ₹59 lakh crore debt market.
India’s markets regulator is preparing a pilot to test whether corporate bonds can be issued and settled using tokenisation, in a move that could give one of the country’s largest debt markets a faster and more transparent trading infrastructure. According to reports in the Financial Express and Business Standard, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, is examining a distributed ledger technology model that would allow bonds to move through a token-based system rather than the traditional settlement process.
The plan comes as SEBI looks for ways to improve a market with about ₹59 lakh crore outstanding, where many institutional investors still hold bonds to maturity and retail participation remains thin. Analytics Insight reported that secondary trading is limited despite the market’s size, although activity has been rising. In fiscal 2025-26, settled corporate bond trading value increased 27.9% to ₹21.2 lakh crore, while off-market settlements through depositories jumped 65.5% to ₹89,293 crore. Electronic Request for Quote trades also rose sharply, lifting average monthly turnover to ₹60,985 crore.
The regulator has not named any issuers, exchanges, depositories or other institutions that may take part in the trial, and no start date has been confirmed. But according to several reports, SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the initiative is still at a pilot stage and may take around six to nine months before any wider rollout is considered. The regulator is said to be assessing whether tokenised trading can improve settlement speed, traceability, automation and transparency while keeping risks under review.
The Reserve Bank of India may provide part of the technical foundation. Analytics Insight said the central bank has already tested tokenised certificates of deposit through its wholesale central bank digital currency, or CBDC, infrastructure and is also examining tokenisation for commercial paper. That gives SEBI a possible settlement rail to build on as it explores whether blockchain-style systems can make corporate debt more usable in day-to-day market activity.
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