Singapore has opened online bidding for the first 624 luxury items forfeited in its S$3 billion, or roughly $2.37 billion, money laundering case.

Hotlotz said in its auction announcement that bidding for both sales began on Sep. 7. The Singapore auction house was appointed by Deloitte Singapore to sell forfeited luxury goods through a series of 15 auctions running from September 2026 to May 2027.

The first sale covers handbags and accessories and closes on Sep. 20. A separate jewellery sale closes on Sep. 27. According to Channel News Asia’s report on the sales, the two groups of items carry a combined pre-sale estimate of S$2.9 million to S$3.9 million, or about $2.29 million to $3.08 million at the exchange rate used in the headline.

Singapore auction opens to bidders abroad

Hotlotz said the auctions are open to participants globally, giving buyers outside Singapore access to the catalogues and online bidding. Each bidder must register separately for the sales they want to enter and complete an identity check. The auction house does not accept bids in person, by telephone, or through an agent acting on a bidder’s instructions.

Interested buyers can inspect the items at Le Freeport in the Changi North area before bidding closes, but Hotlotz requires a confirmed appointment. Viewing slots are limited and available to registered participants on a first-come, first-served basis; walk-ins are not allowed.

Handbags and accessories will be on view from Sep. 14 to Sep. 19. Jewellery can be inspected over the same dates and again from Sept. 21 to Sept. 26, according to the auction schedule.

Among the 338 handbag and accessory lots is a limited-edition Louis Vuitton bag made with artist Yayoi Kusama. Hotlotz estimates the yellow-and-black pumpkin bag at S$12,000 to S$16,000. Its catalogue also lists a customised Louis Vuitton jewellery trunk, Dior bags and several Chanel pieces.

The 286 jewellery lots include a 15.02-carat yellow diamond ring with an estimate of S$200,000 to S$300,000. Hotlotz has also listed a Hermès diamond bracelet at S$150,000 to S$200,000 and a Bulgari emerald-and-diamond necklace at S$60,000 to S$80,000. Those figures are estimates for individual lots, not final sale prices.

Later auctions are scheduled to include Hermès handbags and watches by makers including Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, and Rolex. Hotlotz said it will release the catalogues for those sales closer to their bidding dates.

How the money laundering case reached the auction stage

The sales follow Singapore’s August 2023 raids against a group suspected of moving proceeds from overseas crime through the country. As crypto.news reported after the raids, police initially arrested 10 foreign nationals and identified about S$1 billion in assets that had been seized, frozen or placed under disposal restrictions. The assets included properties, vehicles, bank accounts, and documents linked to cryptocurrency accounts.

The value tied to the investigation later rose to more than S$3 billion. That case-wide figure is separate from the estimated value of the goods now offered in the first two auctions, which represent only a small part of the assets surrendered to Singapore.

In a November 2024 account of the forfeitures, the Singapore Police Force said all 10 people arrested in the raids had been convicted and given prison terms of 13 to 17 months. About S$944 million in assets linked to them had been surrendered to the state. The police also said 15 of another 17 people linked to the probe had agreed to surrender about S$1.85 billion in assets under court orders.

Earlier, Channel News Asia reported on the asset process, citing police statements that non-cash property would be sold through channels such as auctions. According to that account, proceeds from those sales and forfeited cash go into Singapore’s consolidated fund.

USDT transactions appear in the case records

The investigation was not confined to cryptocurrency, but official records describe how USDT was used by people connected to it. In a 2025 account of a banker’s conviction, Singapore police said former Citibank relationship manager Wang Qiming helped convicted offender Su Baolin arrange the sale of USDT for Singapore dollars in December 2020.

Police said a first tranche of 499,980 USDT produced S$657,980 that was deposited into Su’s bank account. A second tranche of 364,908 USDT was sold for S$481,678 in cash, which Wang collected for Su. Wang was sentenced to 24 months in prison after being convicted of offences that included forgery and money laundering; police said the cash was reasonably suspected of representing benefits from unlawful remote gambling.

Su Baolin separately received a 14-month prison sentence in 2024. Channel News Asia’s court report said he had pleaded guilty to charges involving suspected criminal proceeds, including possession of S$777,220.50 in cash and a Toyota Alphard bought for S$332,281.26. Investigators found that gambling winnings had been sent to his cryptocurrency wallet in USDT and that he had earned about 4 million USDT from operating or supervising illegal gambling websites overseas.

A separate cryptocurrency connection concerns Su Weiyi, who shared business interests with another convicted offender, Wang Shuiming. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found through corporate records that the two had been involved in companies together. Hong Kong authorities accused Su Weiyi of theft following the collapse of crypto exchange Atom Asset Exchange, but OCCRP said he had not been implicated in Singapore’s money laundering investigation. Su Weiyi has contested the Hong Kong charges.

For U.S. readers considering the sale, Hotlotz’s published terms provide the direct connection: overseas participants can register for the auctions, subject to the same identity checks and online-only bidding process as Singapore-based buyers.

Wirex has added Tempo as a live settlement option for enterprise stablecoin card programs after the network processed more than $1 billion in transfers during a 30-day period.

Wirex said on Sept. 10 that fintech companies and digital platforms using its infrastructure can select Tempo to settle transactions connected to their card products. The integration combines Wirex’s licensed card services with a Layer 1 network developed for stablecoin payments.

The announcement identifies Wirex as a principal member of Visa and Mastercard. Its business platform covers card issuance, wallets, compliance and stablecoin settlement through one integration. Tempo supplies the blockchain layer and works with participating companies on product design and technical deployment.

Neither company identified the first customers using the joint service. Transaction values, supported stablecoins, card availability and launch markets were not disclosed. Wirex said the first programs were moving toward production, while further details would be released later.

Wirex adds Tempo as a stablecoin settlement option

Enterprise clients can use Tempo as the settlement network beneath stablecoin-backed cards issued through Wirex. A cardholder can spend from a stablecoin balance while the infrastructure providers manage the movement of funds and the connection to established card networks.

Wirex handles the regulated parts of the card program, including issuance, wallets and compliance. The company said it issues cards under its own licenses through its Visa and Mastercard memberships. Access and product features may still depend on the jurisdiction, customer type and regulatory status of each program.

Tempo describes its blockchain as a payments-first Layer 1 incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. The network was designed for stablecoin transfers instead of general-purpose blockchain activity. Its listed features include settlement in under one second, stablecoin-denominated transaction fees and dedicated payment capacity.

Network charges can be paid with stablecoins, removing the need for customers to hold a separate blockchain token solely for gas. Tempo says predictable fees can help businesses calculate transaction costs before moving payments through the network.

The integration does not mean Wirex has issued a new stablecoin or launched a new consumer card. It gives existing and prospective enterprise clients another blockchain option when constructing card programs through Wirex’s infrastructure.

Tempo provides payment data and optional privacy

Tempo attaches structured information to transactions, allowing payment records and settlement details to travel through the same system. The feature is intended to simplify reconciliation, which involves matching payments with invoices, customer records and internal accounting entries.

For businesses processing a high number of card transactions, missing or fragmented payment data can require separate databases and manual checks. Tempo says its transaction structure lets companies maintain payment context without separating the financial transfer from its associated information.

The network’s privacy system, called Tempo Zones, is designed to keep balances and transactions private while supporting selective disclosure. Participating companies can share specified records for audits or compliance reviews without making every transaction detail publicly visible, according to Tempo.

Wirex and Tempo have not published the technical configuration used by the first card programs. No public information identifies which records remain private, who controls disclosure or how compliance officers can access protected transaction data.

Tempo’s reported $1 billion in 30-day stablecoin transfer volume came from the network itself. The companies did not provide an independent audit of the figure or separate card settlement from other transfers. It should therefore be treated as a network-reported activity measure, not confirmed Wirex card volume.

Stablecoin card programs receive implementation support

Tempo’s Stablecoin Advisory group and forward-deployed engineers will help customers design card and settlement flows. Their work covers architecture, infrastructure selection, prototypes and production deployment.

The advisory unit has worked with companies including DoorDash, Deel, Klarna, Felix and ARQ, according to the announcement. Wirex did not say whether any of those companies would launch cards through the new integration.

Daniel Rowlands, general manager of Wirex, said Tempo gives partners “fast, predictable and private settlement.” He said Tempo’s technical teams could help companies move from integration to production faster, though the companies provided no deployment timetable against which that claim could be measured.

Ani Narayan, go-to-market executive at Tempo, said Wirex gives companies building on the network a route to issue stablecoin-backed cards. The service pairs the blockchain with Wirex’s regulated card infrastructure and implementation support.

Wirex reported that its infrastructure reached $1 billion in annualized on-chain volume 131 days after launch, then doubled the annualized rate 110 days later. Annualized volume is a projection based on activity over a shorter period and does not mean the platform processed $2 billion during those 110 days.

No verified market reaction accompanied the announcement. Wirex is privately held, and the partnership did not introduce a publicly traded token for Tempo.

Payment companies are extending stablecoins to cards

Stablecoin companies and established payment networks have been testing ways to connect blockchain balances with conventional cards. Wirex introduced a Visa Direct service in February that lets participating businesses fund eligible card payouts with stablecoins.

In related coverage, Wirex joined Visa’s Agentic Ready program in June to test payments initiated by artificial-intelligence agents. The program involves identity, authorization and transaction controls for payments requested by software agents.

Card networks have pursued their own stablecoin services. Mastercard announced in 2025 that Wirex was among the participants in its Crypto Credential system, which assigns verified identifiers to eligible blockchain accounts and is designed to reduce address errors during transfers.

Stablecoins are moving into bank-controlled payment infrastructure as well. As crypto.news reported, U.S. Bank completed a USBDC payment on Stellar between its North American and European entities. The bank tested minting, redemption, freezing and clawback functions but did not announce public access to the token.

Fidelity Digital Assets has taken a different route by issuing a publicly transferable dollar token. In related coverage, Fidelity launched its FIDD stablecoin for eligible institutional and retail customers, with reserves held at Bank of New York Mellon.

Wirex and Tempo said they are working on their first joint enterprise programs. Their announcement did not provide launch dates, name participating issuers or disclose which countries will receive the first cards.

Danmarks Nationalbank has warned that a sharp increase in stablecoin use could eventually affect Denmark’s payments, financial system and monetary policy transmission, despite their limited use in the country today.

Danmarks Nationalbank said in a Sept. 9 analysis that stablecoins have expanded globally in recent years, with activity rising sharply toward the end of 2025, while adoption in Denmark remains very low. The central bank said no Danish krone-denominated stablecoin currently exists.

The assessment comes as stablecoin services are becoming easier to access across Europe, including through banks, fintech companies and regulated payment infrastructure. The Danish central bank expects greater availability through financial companies and new payment applications could eventually lead to higher domestic use.

One recent example has already reached Denmark. Revolut began rolling out EURR to selected customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal on Aug. 26, with expansion into other European Economic Area markets planned later in 2026. The euro-pegged token is issued by Stripe-owned Bridge Building and is designed to maintain a value of €1 under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets rules.

The launch gives Danish users access to a regulated euro stablecoin through a large financial platform even though Denmark does not have a stablecoin tied to its own currency.

Stablecoin risks remain limited in Denmark

Danmarks Nationalbank said stablecoins currently have no implications for Denmark’s financial system because their domestic use remains small. Risks could change if adoption increases substantially, particularly if foreign currency-denominated tokens become common.

Dollar-denominated stablecoins were singled out as one possible channel for external financial shocks. Turmoil involving such tokens could reach Denmark through spillovers from the U.S. financial system and international financial markets, according to the central bank.

The issue is tied to the scale and currency composition of the global market. Dollar-pegged tokens continue to dominate stablecoin capitalization, while euro-denominated alternatives account for only a small portion of the sector.

Euro stablecoins have nonetheless expanded under MiCA. Decta data published in July showed that the market capitalization of eight MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins increased 128% over the year through June 28, rising from $295.6 million to $673.9 million. Trading volume across the group increased 43.1% to $67.3 million.

At the time, the eight euro tokens were still worth less than 1% of the global stablecoin market, while dollar-denominated USDT and USDC accounted for a much larger share.

Danmarks Nationalbank said increased stablecoin use could eventually affect more than payments. Its analysis identified possible effects on financial markets, banks and the way monetary policy passes through the economy.

Banks could increase stablecoin access

European financial institutions have been developing stablecoin products and infrastructure as MiCA establishes rules for crypto assets across the bloc.

A banking consortium behind Qivalis expanded to 37 institutions in May after adding 25 banks from 15 European countries, including ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Nordea and Intesa Sanpaolo. The consortium has been preparing a regulated euro stablecoin, with its launch planned for the second half of 2026.

The project includes banks such as ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank and BBVA and is intended to support regulated onchain payments and settlement. Its membership gives the project a distribution network across several European banking markets.

Payment infrastructure providers have been building similar services. OpenPayd secured MiCA authorization in June, giving it crypto-asset service provider status and allowing it to offer fiat-to-stablecoin conversions, custody, wallet infrastructure and stablecoin transfers across the EEA.

crypto.news previously reported that corporate treasury teams have become a source of stablecoin demand in Europe, with businesses examining the tokens for settlement, international payments and moving funds outside normal banking hours.

Data cited by Paybis showed USDC volume in the European Union increased roughly 109% between October 2025 and March 2026, while its share of stablecoin activity on the platform rose from around 13% to 32%.

The development of bank and fintech distribution channels fits one of the routes identified by Danmarks Nationalbank through which stablecoin use could increase in Denmark. The central bank said greater availability through banks and other financial companies, together with new payment applications, may lead to more use over time.

Central bank money should remain the settlement base

Danmarks Nationalbank took a different position on stablecoins as a settlement asset between financial institutions.

While describing its approach to new forms of digital money as technology-neutral, the central bank said central bank money should remain the common foundation for trust and stability in the monetary system and the primary settlement asset between banks.

The position is similar to one taken by the European Central Bank as financial institutions develop tokenized securities, deposits and payment systems. ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said in March that tokenized financial markets require a settlement anchor in central bank money, including when stablecoins and tokenized commercial bank deposits are used.

The Eurosystem has been developing infrastructure intended to provide that connection. Pontes is designed to link distributed ledger technology platforms with TARGET Services, allowing tokenized transactions to settle using central bank money.

Danmarks Nationalbank said it is working with the ECB to make sure banks can retain access to central bank money in a tokenized financial system. Under its assessment, new technology can change how financial assets and payments operate without replacing central bank money as the settlement layer between banks.

The central bank said stablecoins remain part of the development of new digital money and payment solutions driven by technology and international companies. Its analysis identified resilient payment systems, trust in money and a functioning monetary system as considerations if their use in Denmark increases.

NFT sales reached approximately $46.78 million over the seven days ending Sep. 12, up 6.8% from the previous seven-day period, according to CryptoSlam data. Ethereum led blockchain sales, while a small number of high-value Bitcoin transactions accounted for much of the week’s activity.

According to data from CryptoSlam, the increase in dollar sales came alongside a steep drop in the addresses recorded as buyers and sellers. Buyer addresses fell 84.67% to 41,959, while seller addresses declined 85.13% to 43,247. The dashboard recorded 917,549 transactions, up 48.75%.

Those counts describe addresses, not confirmed individual buyers or sellers. They also show why the higher sales total needs context: more transactions took place despite far fewer addresses appearing in the buyer and seller figures.

Ethereum leads NFT sales with $16.83 million

Ethereum remained the largest blockchain for NFT sales at $16.83 million, although its total fell 6.36% from the prior period. CryptoSlam recorded 8,271 buyer addresses on Ethereum, down 79.37%, and $794,730 in wash-trading volume. The dashboard lists wash volume separately from sales; the two figures should not be added together.

Bitcoin ranked second with $9.44 million in sales, a 50.12% increase. Its buyer-address count fell 82.79% to 2,255, while listed wash volume was $74,767. Bitcoin’s gain was much stronger than Ethereum’s, but its collection and individual-sale rankings show that a handful of transactions carried a large share of that volume.

Polygon followed with $7.71 million in sales, up 7.73%, and 13,888 buyer addresses, down 85.34%. CryptoSlam separately displayed $17.11 million in Polygon wash volume. Because that figure is larger than the chain’s listed sales, it should not be read as additional collectible purchases.

BNB Chain ranked fourth at $4.02 million, up 25.99%, followed by Base at $2.48 million, down 35.34%, and Solana at $2.30 million, up 32.91%. Buyer-address counts fell on all six of the leading chains shown in the dashboard, including a 90% decline on BNB Chain and an 86.97% drop on Base.

The six networks together accounted for approximately $42.78 million of the $46.78 million global sales total. Smaller networks supplied the remainder. For U.S. readers following NFT activity across chains, the split matters: Ethereum led in dollar volume, while Bitcoin posted the largest weekly sales gain among the top six.

Courtyard tops weekly NFT collection sales

Courtyard led collections with $6.67 million in sales on Polygon, up 8.46%. It recorded 104,404 transactions, 16,253 buyer addresses and 14,268 seller addresses. Transactions rose 9.98%, although buyer addresses fell 14.60%.

Courtyard’s NFTs represent ownership of physical collectibles held through its platform, according to Polygon’s description of the project. Its high transaction count therefore sits in a different category of activity from the week’s largest Bitcoin BRC-20 NFT transfers.

Ethereum-based Argonauts ranked second with $4.36 million in sales, up 109.04%. The collection recorded 2,331 transactions and 656 buyer addresses. Despite the increase in sales value, its transaction count fell 25.14% and buyer addresses dropped 21.72%.

The Bitcoin-based $X@AI BRC-20 NFTs collection placed third with $2.90 million, up 217.88%, but reached that total through just nine transactions involving seven buyer addresses. Its largest displayed sale, at $2.10 million, represented about 72% of the collection’s weekly volume. CryptoSlam classified the transfers as NFT sales; the dashboard alone does not establish that they reflect broad demand for conventional digital collectibles.

Another Bitcoin collection, $X@AGI BRC-20 NFTs, ranked fourth at $1.72 million across three transactions. CryptoSlam showed a 7,762.30% weekly increase, a percentage shaped by the small number of sales. Its largest displayed transaction was worth $1.14 million, or roughly two-thirds of the collection’s weekly total.

CryptoPunks followed at $1.13 million across 15 transactions, down 41.84%. BNB Chain’s OI NFT recorded $1.00 million across 2,001 transactions, with 2,001 buyer addresses and two seller addresses. Guild of Guardians Heroes placed seventh at $952,128, down 2.27%, ahead of Bitcoin-based $ATMC BRC-20 NFTs at $920,976, up 80.47%.

Bitcoin BRC-20 NFTs dominate the largest sales

The five largest individual sales displayed by CryptoSlam were all Bitcoin BRC-20 NFTs. The top-ranked $X@AI BRC-20 NFT sold for $2,095,886.72, or 26.2326 BTC, approximately five days before the Sep. 12 screenshot.

A $X@AGI BRC-20 NFT followed at $1,140,988.93, or 14.3755 BTC, approximately three days before the screenshot. Another $X@AGI item sold for $574,078.04, or 7.1817 BTC, roughly six days before it.

Fourth was a $X@AI BRC-20 NFT at $401,684.92, settled for 5.0818 BTC, approximately five days before the screenshot. A further $X@AI item completed the top five at $395,775.82, or 5 BTC, roughly three days before it. Together, those five listed trades were worth about $4.61 million, close to half of Bitcoin’s weekly NFT sales total.

Crypto companies announced $151 million in disclosed financing across five deals from Sep. 5–11, 2026. The largest was Nasdaq Ventures’ agreement to invest $100 million in Kraken parent Payward; Latitude’s $35 million Series A ranked second.

The total includes Nasdaq’s announced investment agreement, which the companies did not describe as a completed payment. It excludes funding rounds with undisclosed amounts, company valuations, and acquisitions.

The deal inventory draws on CryptoRank’s funding database and Crypto Fundraising’s deal records, with transaction details checked against company, investor and other reporting sources. The disclosed total counts each of the five dated financings once.

Payward secures Nasdaq’s $100 million investment agreement

Nasdaq said on Sep. 10 that its venture arm had agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of Kraken. The announcement described an agreement to invest, so the $100 million is included in the week’s announced financing total rather than presented as cash already received.

The transaction builds on work between Nasdaq and Payward on tokenized equities. Nasdaq said the companies plan to connect its proposed Nasdaq Equity Tokens design with Payward’s xStocks infrastructure. Payward will also adopt Nasdaq’s market surveillance technology across its trading venues.

Nasdaq expects to launch its equity-token design in the second quarter of 2027. That is a company target, not a completed launch. The U.S. market link is direct: Nasdaq operates American securities-market infrastructure, while the proposed design concerns the ownership and trading of tokenized shares.

The Payward agreement accounted for about 66% of the week’s $151 million disclosed total. Its size made it the clear leader, although its transaction status differs from the rounds the companies said they had already raised.

Latitude raises $35 million for stablecoin payments

Oak HC/FT said it led Latitude’s $35 million Series A on Sep. 9. The company builds infrastructure that uses stablecoins for settlement while delivering payments to recipients through local banking and payment systems.

Oak described Latitude’s product as a single interface for businesses sending money across markets. Its investment case focused on the work needed to turn stablecoin transfers into usable local-currency payments, including banking connections, liquidity and compliance.

The investor said Latitude had secured money-transmitter licenses or approvals across 45 U.S. markets. That gives the financing a practical U.S. angle: the company is building a regulated route for businesses that originate payments in the United States and need to pay recipients abroad.

The $35 million figure refers to the new Series A. Crypto Fundraising also lists an earlier $8 million Latitude financing in March, which is outside this roundup and is not included in the weekly total. Latitude and Payward together made up $135 million, or roughly 89% of the five deals’ disclosed value.

Antarctic Exchange announces a $7 million financing

Antarctic Exchange announced a $7 million round on Sep. 7 for its decentralized perpetual-futures platform. The company-supplied announcement, published by Crypto Fundraising, named Valisa Capital Markets and Lucidity Capital among its backers and said Republic Crypto structured the transaction’s token component.

The announcement described the financing as a SAFE-plus-token deal and gave a $70 million company valuation. The valuation measures the stated price of the business in the transaction; it is separate from the $7 million raised and is not added to the weekly funding total.

Antarctic said it is developing trading tools for retail derivatives users. Its claims about platform standing and product performance come from the company announcement and should be treated as company claims, rather than independently established results.

The round was smaller than the two payments and market-infrastructure deals above it, but it was the week’s largest disclosed financing for a decentralized trading platform.

Projects below $7 million

• RealGo reported a $6 million strategic financing involving UZ Capital, Greenwood Global Capital, and Infinite Alliance. According to the report, the Web3 gaming company plans to spend the money on product development, team expansion, and AI research. The figure is the newly reported round, separate from earlier RealGo funding.
• TINA announced a $3 million financing for its geospatial data network, according to ChainCatcher. The report named THINKWARE, Gemhead Capital, Archer Capital, Astra Capital, Mayer Venture, and Tidal Capital as investors. TINA said the funding would support the expansion of its location-data project and dashcam ecosystem. The report did not establish a lead investor, so the backers are listed without assigning one.

Undisclosed investments remain outside the total

TRM Labs announced a Series C expansion on Sep. 9. The San Francisco company said Blockchain Capital led the investment and that its valuation reached $2 billion, double the valuation attached to its February Series C. TRM did not disclose the new capital raised. The $2 billion figure is a valuation, not funding received.

Robinhood also said it would hold equity stakes in Crypto.com and OG.com through a prediction-markets partnership announced Sep. 8. The companies did not disclose an investment amount. OG.com said Robinhood would route some event-contract volume through its U.S. derivatives infrastructure; the equity arrangements are counted as two disclosed-stake transactions, but neither adds a dollar figure to the $151 million total.

Acquisitions appearing in funding databases, including Circle’s Tazapay transaction, are excluded because an acquisition price is not fresh financing raised by the acquired company.

India has issued ₹1,025 crore, approximately $116 million, in tokenized corporate bonds through three transactions settled with the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale digital rupee.

SEBI said on Sept. 10 that the Demat 2.0 pilot connects a distributed ledger owned by India’s statutory depositories with the RBI’s Unified Market Interface. The system moves the bond and its payment together through atomic settlement.

REC Limited completed the first issuance on Sept. 7, raising ₹500 crore from 18 investors. Larsen & Toubro followed on Sept. 9 with a ₹500 crore bond purchased by four investors. IIFL issued ₹25 crore to one investor on the same day.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India and the RBI announced the pilot during the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey and RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra presented the project jointly.

India’s tokenized bonds remain conventional securities

Demat 2.0 changes how ownership, settlement and bond servicing are recorded. It does not create a new category of security or alter the issuer’s repayment obligations.

Each tokenized bond retains its fixed interest rate, maturity date and legal rights. Existing requirements covering credit ratings, debenture trustees, exchange listings and company disclosures continue to apply.

Ownership records sit on a distributed ledger maintained by India’s regulated depositories. Investors hold the securities through their existing demat accounts, meaning participants do not need a separate securities account or a new identity check.

Participation still requires an investor to activate Demat 2.0 with the relevant depository. Investors must hold a wholesale digital rupee wallet with a participating bank because payments settle in the RBI-issued currency.

SEBI described the structure as India’s first native distributed-ledger issuance of corporate bonds in which statutory depositories maintain ownership records and central bank digital currency settles the cash leg. Similar projects in other markets have often used platforms created for individual issuers.

India’s National Institute of Securities Markets valued the country’s corporate bond market at ₹53.64 lakh crore, or approximately $627 billion, in September 2025. The figure supports the reported $620 billion market estimate, but it does not represent the value entering the pilot.

Only ₹1,025 crore has been issued through Demat 2.0 so far. SEBI has not set a target for the amount of bonds that will move onto the system.

Digital rupee settlement joins both sides of each trade

Demat 2.0 connects the bond ledger to the RBI’s wholesale central bank digital currency through the Unified Market Interface. Atomic settlement means delivery of the tokenized security and payment in digital rupees occur as one transaction.

Conventional bond issuance can involve separate systems for allocating securities and transferring money. SEBI said issuers generally received funds two to three days after bidding under the previous process. The pilot allows an issuer to receive payment on the bidding day.

The regulator said atomic settlement removes the risk of one part of a transaction completing while the other fails. Its statement described the settlement-risk benefit as a feature of the pilot, not a finding from an independent performance review.

Corporate actions can run through smart contracts on the depository ledger. Interest payments and bond redemptions are programmed for delivery to investors’ wholesale digital rupee wallets on their due dates.

Existing servicing requires an issuer or registrar to obtain a list of bondholders, calculate each payment and send funds through banking channels. In the pilot, authorized institutions share access to the ownership record, while programmed instructions trigger the payment.

SEBI expects the structure to reduce manual file sharing, reconciliation and validation work. The regulator has not released audited figures measuring operating-cost reductions or error rates from the first three issuances.

India’s use of central bank money differs from crypto-based tokenized securities that trade against privately issued stablecoins or other digital assets. As crypto.news reported, Uniswap v4 held $59.1 million in tokenized stock deposits as of Sept. 6, according to Token Terminal. Those deposits sit within decentralized finance applications, while Demat 2.0 operates through regulated depositories and participating banks.

Three issuers have tested the Demat 2.0 system

State-owned REC opened the pilot with a ₹500 crore transaction on Sept. 7. Separate information released around the issuance described a 7.30% coupon and a maturity of one year and nine months.

REC initially offered ₹100 crore with a ₹400 crore greenshoe option. Investors submitted ₹796 crore in bids, according to the company’s reported transaction details, exceeding the final amount issued.

Larsen & Toubro completed the pilot’s second transaction two days later. Four investors purchased its ₹500 crore bond. SEBI did not disclose their identities, investment allocations or the bond’s coupon in its pilot announcement.

IIFL carried out the third transaction on Sept. 9, issuing ₹25 crore to a single investor. The regulator did not identify the buyer or explain why the deal involved only one participant.

Combined participation across the three deals reached 23 investors, assuming no investor appeared in more than one transaction. SEBI did not publish a list that would allow overlap to be checked.

No verified market reaction accompanied the announcement. SEBI did not provide secondary-market prices, trading yields or data showing changes in the issuers’ listed shares following the transactions.

Later phases will introduce trading and retail access

The first phase remains focused on corporate bond issuance. SEBI said new offerings are continuing, but the regulator did not identify the next companies, transaction sizes or launch dates.

A later phase will connect tokenized bonds to India’s existing request-for-quote platforms. The planned change would let eligible investors buy and sell the securities after issuance while keeping trading within the current regulated market structure.

SEBI said secondary-market sellers could receive digital-rupee funds immediately, compared with a previous settlement period of two to three days. The regulator has not announced when this trading phase will begin.

Retail participation is planned for a subsequent stage. Individual investors would use existing demat accounts, though they would need activated Demat 2.0 access and a compatible digital rupee wallet.

The RBI has previously used its wholesale digital rupee for controlled financial-market transactions. In related coverage, U.S. Bank tested a proprietary digital dollar on Stellar, but that pilot involved a bank-issued token rather than central bank currency.

India’s system remains separate from public cryptocurrency markets. Private tokens do not settle the bond transactions, and the securities do not trade through decentralized exchanges.

SEBI said experience collected during the issuance, secondary-trading and retail phases will guide any expansion. It has not committed to a full rollout or published deadlines for deciding whether Demat 2.0 will move beyond pilot status.