The tokenization of traditional financial instruments is accelerating on two fronts, with India’s securities regulator confirming its corporate bond pilot is moving ahead and Broadridge Financial Solutions reporting $8 trillion in blockchain-based repo transactions during July.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) used its annual report to reiterate plans first floated in May to tokenize the country’s ₹59 lakh crore ($7 trillion) corporate bond market using distributed ledger technology. The pilot aims to test not just issuance but also automated servicing of debt instruments and settlement directly integrated with the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). That CBDC already handles government securities settlement, inter-bank lending, and tokenized certificates of deposit, creating a foundation that most jurisdictions lack when experimenting with tokenization.
SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey described the pilot as exploratory, likely to last six to nine months on a limited scale. The regulator’s bet is that faster, cheaper settlement via blockchain could spur secondary trading in a market where institutional investors typically hold bonds to maturity. India’s depositories NSDL and CDSL have been using blockchain for security creation and covenant monitoring since 2021, giving the pilot a head start. Crucially, the project moves forward under existing securities law, sidestepping the unresolved debate over cryptocurrency regulation.
Meanwhile, Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform recorded average daily volume of $365 billion in July, a 28% year-over-year increase, totaling $8 trillion for the month. DLR allows financial institutions to settle repurchase agreements and move tokenized collateral on a blockchain without replacing existing systems. The platform has sustained volumes above $350 billion per day for much of 2026, with milestones including $7.3 trillion in January, $8 trillion in March, and another $8 trillion in July.
“DLR continues to demonstrate that distributed ledger infrastructure can support the scale, reliability and interoperability required for core financing activity,” said Horacio Barakat, global head of digital innovation at Broadridge. The company is also extending its blockchain tools to tokenized securities, shareholder voting, and post-trade services, recently partnering with Ondo Finance to offer governance tools for tokenized stocks and ETFs.
These developments mirror a broader trend. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation began limited production of its tokenization service in July with more than 50 financial firms, including BlackRock and JPMorgan, targeting a wider rollout in October. In Europe, Boerse Stuttgart’s Seturion settlement network added Societe Generale and flatexDEGIRO, while DTCC and others tested cross-border repo with tokenized UK bonds on the Canton Network, in which Broadridge participates alongside Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.
The initiatives signal that tokenized securities infrastructure is rapidly becoming a core part of institutional market plumbing, even as cryptocurrency regulation remains fragmented.
