pil

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced on Thursday that three issuers raised a total of 102.5 million rupees (approximately 10.72 million USD) through its Demat 2 pilot program by issuing tokenized corporate bonds. This pilot utilizes distributed ledger technology to issue, hold, and settle corporate bonds.REC Ltd. was the first to issue on September 7, raising 50 million rupees (approximately 5.23 million USD) from 18 investors; L&T Ltd. raised a similar amount from 4 investors on September 9, and IIFL raised 25 million rupees (approximately 2.6 million USD) from 1 investor on the same day. SEBI stated that the pilot infrastructure records corporate bonds in the form of native digital tokens on a distributed ledger owned by the depository and achieves atomic settlement of bonds and funds through a unified market interface connected to the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency.This mechanism can reduce settlement risks arising from the separation of securities and funds transfer, allowing issuers to receive funds on the same day as the bidding, whereas the existing process typically takes two to three days. The regulator noted that the information of bondholders on the shared ledger is instantly visible to all authorized entities, and at maturity, e₹ payments will go directly into the bondholders' central bank digital currency wallets. SEBI clarified that this pilot does not create a new category of corporate bonds; tokenized bonds retain the same ISIN, issuer obligations, coupon, maturity, covenants, ratings, and investor rights as traditional paperless bonds. The pilot will be implemented in three phases, with the first phase covering institutional issuance, while secondary trading and retail access will be conducted in subsequent phases within SEBI's regulatory sandbox.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) launched the Demat 2 pilot this week, issuing corporate bonds in the form of digital tokens on a distributed ledger operated by regulated market institutions, and settling through the wholesale digital rupee of the Reserve Bank of India. The size of India's corporate bond market is approximately $620 billion.The state-owned power financing institution REC raised ₹50 billion (approximately $56 million) through this system, engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro refinanced ₹50 billion, and non-banking financial institution IIFL Finance raised ₹2.5 billion (approximately $2.8 million), totaling around ₹102.5 billion. The bonds retain fixed interest rates, maturity dates, and investor rights, but the tokenized bonds can be settled simultaneously with the digital rupees used for purchase, thereby reducing transaction risk.Subsequent phases will introduce smart contracts to handle corporate actions such as interest payments and redemptions, and there are plans to open secondary market trading, ultimately allowing retail investors to participate. India maintains a cautious attitude towards private cryptocurrencies, and this pilot is an attempt to introduce tokenization into its controlled financial system.

Uzbekistan has launched a pilot project to test government securities-backed som-pegged stablecoin payments. The National Project Agency (NAPP) announced on Monday that it has registered Humo Digital as a special mechanism participant under joint regulation with the central bank. This pilot will test the issuance, circulation, and redemption of HUMO tokens, with each token pegged to 1 Uzbek som. According to NAPP, over 20 merchants are already prepared to accept HUMO payments, and the project will also integrate payment processing and blockchain infrastructure from participating banks, with licensed cryptocurrency exchange Asterium as a project partner. The Central Bank of Uzbekistan stated that the initial trial will last for 12 months, with a total project duration capped at 3 years. Regulators will assess the adequacy and security of the token collateral, cybersecurity, consumer protection, anti-money laundering controls, and financial and price stability risks. This pilot follows the framework approved in November 2025, when Uzbekistan indicated plans to allow stablecoin payment experiments under a sandbox mechanism while providing relevant terms for tokenized stocks and bonds.

The Hashgraph Group, in collaboration with Merck and with consulting and implementation support from PwC Germany, is piloting a cocoa traceability solution. This solution combines Merck's M-Trust physical authentication technology with the TrackTrace digital product passport platform based on the Hedera network, aiming to verify the origin, authenticity, quality, recall requirements, and compliance data of cocoa from farm to consumer.Cocoa is one of the seven commodities covered by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). According to the rescheduled arrangement reached in December 2025, large operators and traders must fulfill their obligations starting from December 30, 2026, while micro and small operators will be subject to this from June 30, 2027. The solution also aligns with the direction of promoting digital product passports under the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR); however, food and feed are currently explicitly excluded from the scope of the ESPR, and for cocoa, EUDR due diligence remains a recent binding requirement.Partners indicate that this framework is not limited to cocoa and can be expanded to areas such as pharmaceuticals, luxury goods, and industrial components in the future. Husen Kapasi, head of PwC Germany's enterprise blockchain business, pointed out that this solution has verifiability and can play a key role in food recalls or compliance investigations.

According to Digital Asset, the South Korean Financial Services Commission has announced plans to advance a tokenization model for listed stocks centered around the Korea Exchange (KRX), referencing pilot programs from the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Non-listed stocks will be advanced for tokenization through a trust method.The Financial Services Commission has released a three-phase roadmap for the tokenization of standardized assets. The first phase will launch in February 2027 when the token securities law is implemented, targeting tokenization of private money market funds, private corporate bonds, and non-listed stocks, limited to institutional investors. The second phase will expand the scope to public offerings. The third phase will promote "on-chain settlement," meaning that both securities and settlement methods will complete payments and settlements on the blockchain. The Financial Services Commission stated that on-chain settlement will be officially advanced after stablecoin legislation.

According to the Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam is piloting a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market to strengthen investor protection while opening up financing channels. The government’s Resolution No. 05, released in September 2025, specifies that cryptocurrencies must be backed by RWA, excluding securities and fiat currencies, and will initially be issued only to foreign investors. Currently, five companies have undergone preliminary assessments through the exchange and must meet Level 4 security requirements and contribute at least 100 trillion Vietnamese dong (approximately 383 million USD). The decree No. 284, issued in July, will impose penalties on unlicensed platform trading activities starting from September 1, and domestic investors must wait six months after the first licensed service provider receives a license from the Ministry of Finance before they can trade through licensed providers.

Visa announced its participation in the BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency) initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), aimed at expanding the settlement capabilities of financial institutions and promoting interoperability between traditional payment systems and stablecoin payment rails, allowing institutions to enjoy faster, programmable payments while retaining security and compliance assurances.As the first partner under the BLOOM framework, Nium will pilot the use of stablecoin settlements with Visa, exploring more efficient cross-border fund flows based on Visa's payment network, security, and compliance capabilities. The two parties will study the implementation of settlements seven days a week (including weekends and public holidays) using stablecoins to reduce delays and enhance efficiency. The pilot supports regulated stablecoins backed by major currencies, including US dollar and euro-denominated stablecoins.

TAC posted on platform X that an attacker exploited a vulnerability in the Cosmos EVM precompiled layer to transfer 2,985,651,403 TAC from a single account on the TAC network.The project team subsequently paused the network at block height 24,671,475 to prevent the attack from continuing.

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and the cryptocurrency asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the launch of a pilot program for quantum-resistant digital asset wallets and on-chain transfers, with participants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The pilot operates on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet and uses a multiparty computation protocol that supports the ML-DSA-65 standard.Participating regulatory bodies include the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Office, and Malta's Financial Services Authority, with Bison Bank and DK Bank participating as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet generation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulatory bodies will observe in the initial phase and later participate in governance workflows. The organizers plan to release a white paper covering research, protocol design, and testing results, and gradually open-source the underlying technology. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to prepare the Hong Kong banking sector to fully address quantum security risks by 2030, while a report from the Bank for International Settlements published in 2025 suggests that financial institutions should migrate to quantum-resistant systems in phases.

Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich stated that the company has launched a new bond issuance program called BitBonds and has completed its first issuance.This issuance, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Metaplanet Securities, involves the issuance of Series 21 to 24 unsecured ordinary bonds under Japan's small-scale private placement system, raising a total of approximately 200 million yen. The scale is pilot in nature, aimed at establishing a framework for subsequent bond issuance, distribution, and management.

Korean BC Card announced that it has completed the "Overseas Digital Asset Wallet - Connection of Korean Local Bank Card Payment Infrastructure" pilot test with Coinbase and Wavebridge.The test verified that foreign tourists can directly use USDC in their wallets to make payments at Korean BC QR merchants, achieving a full process linkage from stablecoin payment to Korean won settlement.

Bitcoin.com published an article stating that the model of Web3 startups conducting corporate pilots by paying traditional financial institutions "is a dead end," with 95% of pilot projects failing to reach production environments. Web2 companies only want the idle venture capital and revenue sharing from startups, rather than their open-source innovations. The article argues that true defensiveness comes from a "structural moat"—compliance licenses, deep network liquidity, or distribution lock-ins that Web2 engineering teams cannot replicate.The article cites recent cases: Stripe was acquired for $1.1 billion after proving an annual cross-border transaction volume of $5 billion with Bridge, and Robinhood acquired Bitstamp for $200 million to gain 50 global regulatory licenses and institutional liquidity, rather than maintaining long-term vendor relationships. The article predicts that the next round of B2C expansion will present an 80/20 pattern: 80% of retail liquidity will be controlled by 3 to 5 Web2/fintech giants such as Visa, Stripe, Robinhood, PayPal, and BlackRock, providing compliance and fiat entry; 20% will be an unlicensed DeFi sandbox for validating initial product-market fit. The growth path for startups should be to first validate PMF in the DeFi sandbox, then integrate or sell to the few Web2 gateways controlling the 80% distribution layer. The article believes that the current protocol cancellations and wave of startup closures are part of a "necessary market cleanup."

Large American financial institutions continue to advance on-chain business. JPMorgan is tokenizing ETF holdings through a pilot program with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), and over 50 companies including BlackRock and Goldman Sachs have connected to the same infrastructure for the tokenization of stocks and U.S. Treasury bonds.The CEO of BlackRock stated that tokenization is a way to "update the financial system pipeline." Randi Abernethy, Head of Clearing and Group Risk at Bullish Exchange, testified on the CLARITY Act before the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee in July 2026.

According to Jinshi reports, Guangdong Province is publicly soliciting opinions on the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone (Draft for Comments)," which aims to orderly expand financial openness and promote the expansion of pilot projects for cross-border payments using digital RMB.The plan mentions supporting the establishment of headquarters for international financial institutions, promoting innovative businesses such as cross-border finance and green finance, and deepening pilot projects for the transfer of cross-border credit assets.

Global Stablecoin Arrangement and Liquidity Network Borderless.xyz announced a partnership with Mastercard to launch a pilot program exploring how to enhance trust and compliance in cross-border stablecoin payments through Mastercard Crypto Credential.The pilot will utilize the standardized framework of Mastercard Crypto Credential to provide verifiable trust signals for stablecoin payment processes, helping participants optimize approval, compliance, and risk management. Participants in the pilot include Infinia, Walapay, and Koywe from the Borderless.xyz network.

According to Cointelegraph, payment giant Mastercard has announced a pilot project with the stablecoin infrastructure network Borderless to explore the use of the Mastercard Crypto Credential standard framework to provide more reliable identity verification and compliance support for cross-border stablecoin payments.Both parties stated that the pilot will test how to provide "trust signals" that can be used for approval, compliance review, and risk management for transaction participants through a standardized certification mechanism, reducing compliance friction in cross-border stablecoin payments.The Mastercard Crypto Credential framework provides identity confirmation and credibility assurance for blockchain transactions through unified standards and verification mechanisms. Kevin Lehtiniitty, co-founder and CEO of Borderless, stated that compliance has always been a major barrier to the scalable development of stablecoin payments, and Mastercard is attempting to apply the compliance trust model from traditional finance to the digital asset payment space. He pointed out that the Mastercard Crypto Credential will serve as a governance and verification layer in this pilot, but Mastercard will not directly handle or settle funds. This collaboration is the latest move in Mastercard's ongoing strategy in the stablecoin space.Previously, Mastercard had just completed the acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for approximately $1.8 billion, further strengthening its infrastructure layout in the digital asset payment field. In June of this year, Mastercard also announced plans to expand its settlement capabilities to support round-the-clock card payment settlements using stablecoins, including USDC issued by Circle, PYUSD, USDG, USDP issued by Paxos, and RLUSD issued by Ripple.The market believes that as stablecoins gradually enter cross-border payment scenarios, identity authentication, compliance verification, and risk control infrastructure will become important factors driving institutional adoption.

According to Bloomberg, Bank of New York Mellon is preparing to provide around-the-clock settlement for U.S. Treasury securities in response to the impact of the growth of the digital asset market on traditional financial infrastructure. In a letter to clients, the bank stated that it facilitated after-hours U.S. Treasury trading involving stablecoin issuers earlier this year, with plans to launch tokenized U.S. Treasuries and conduct pilot trading on its private blockchain by the end of 2026, aiming for 24/7 settlement of both traditional and tokenized U.S. Treasuries by 2027.Earlier this year, the bank facilitated after-hours Treasury trading involving stablecoin issuers—after the close of the Federal Reserve's Fedwire Securities Service, involving RLUSD stablecoin issuer Ripple and USDO stablecoin issuer OpenEden, both of which are backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries. BNY stated that the transaction "demonstrates that Treasury market activity related to the digital asset ecosystem can continue beyond traditional cutoff times."

According to DigitalToday, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the Ministry of Science and ICT have launched the "Deposit Token Payment Infrastructure Expansion Project," which will extend the results of South Korea's CBDC pilot "Project Hangang" into the private payment sector.The project is overseen by the Financial Settlement Agency, with participation from 9 banks, 8 payment gateways, and 2 large demand-side entities, with a total budget of 9.6 billion KRW, aimed at reducing payment fees for small and micro merchants. The project utilizes existing payment systems rather than building new infrastructure, allowing users to complete payments through bank deposit token wallets without requiring merchants to change terminals.The government also plans to apply deposit tokens to a pilot for official travel expenses and explore a treasury fund management model linked with dBrain. Approximately 3 billion KRW of the total project budget will be invested in the development, operation, and promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and IT companies, while participating banks will separately advance about 4.5 billion KRW in related businesses.

According to South Korean media Maeil Business, data from the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea shows that during the first phase of the CBDC pilot project led by the Bank of Korea, financial authorities did not conduct any independent security verification, and only the participating banks conducted their own pre-security reviews.Before the project launched, only an IT vulnerability self-assessment was conducted for the participating banks, executed by the Financial Security Institute, SK Shields, and self-inspection teams from Woori Bank and NongHyup Bank, forming an evaluation model of "self-check by the regulated entities." The central bank acknowledged external doubts about the security of the deposit tokens in the pilot result report and responded that the pre-review was sufficient, but critics pointed out that this explanation was a self-assessment and not an independent third-party verification.