The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) launched its Demat 2.0 pilot this week, enabling corporate bonds to be issued as digital tokens on a distributed ledger and settled via the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) wholesale digital rupee. State-owned REC has already raised approximately $56 million through the system, with IIFL Finance raising another $2.8 million. Later phases of the pilot are expected to introduce secondary-market trading and retail investor access.