India’s financial regulator has launched Demat 2.0, a pilot project enabling the issuance and settlement of bonds as digital tokens on a private blockchain. Three companies have already raised a combined 10.25 billion rupees, including 5 billion rupees by REC Limited from 18 investors and 5 billion rupees by Larsen & Toubro from 4 investors. The system uses India’s central bank digital currency to settle transactions instantly, replacing the current two to three-day process. The rollout will proceed in three phases, starting with institutional issuances before expanding to secondary market trading and retail access. India is not replacing its existing infrastructure with an independent crypto system: it is modernizing its market while maintaining current regulations and intermediaries.
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