India’s top securities regulator is making a concrete push toward blockchain-based bonds. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced plans to pilot tokenised corporate bonds using distributed ledger technology, with a rollout expected in six to nine months.
SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey revealed the initiative at the Care Edge Debt Market Summit in Mumbai, alongside a broader overhaul of disclosure rules for listed debt securities. The goal is to align bond disclosures with equity standards, a shift that could reshape India’s $560 billion corporate bond market-roughly 15% of the country’s GDP.
Tokenisation promises near-instant settlement, bypassing layers of intermediaries. SEBI aims to tackle chronic issues like low liquidity, high costs, poor traceability, and manual servicing. Pandey stressed a cautious approach citing technological and operational risks.
SEBI also plans to create a regulatory category for debt brokers and is working with the Reserve Bank of India and finance ministry on a market-making framework. The announcement follows a December 2025 NITI Aayog report recommending tokenised bonds as a way to foster financial innovation.