India and Singapore push tokenized finance into production

Good Morning Bitcoin, 19 September

Regulators in Asia stopped piloting tokenized finance and started running it with live money this week. In Washington, a stalled Senate bill pushed the CFTC to write its own crypto market rules, while Bitcoin ETF investors pulled $746 million over two days before reversing course as soon as the Fed's rate decision landed.

India and Singapore push tokenized finance into production

Between 7 and 9 September 2026, three Indian issuers raised a combined 10.25 billion rupees (about $107-108 million) of corporate bonds under a new framework called Demat 2.0. State lender REC Ltd raised 5 billion rupees ($52 million) from 18 investors, engineering group Larsen & Toubro raised 5 billion rupees ($52 million) from 4 investors and IIFL Finance raised 250 million rupees (about $2.6 million) from a single investor.

On 10 September 2026, India's SEBI and the Reserve Bank of India jointly unveiled Demat 2.0 at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, presented by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra and SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey. The bonds are issued as native digital tokens on a private, permissioned ledger run by depositories NSDL and CDSL, with technology support from NPCI. They carry the same legal status, coupon, maturity and rating as a conventional bond.

Settlement connects to the RBI's wholesale digital rupee through a "Unified Market Interface," giving atomic delivery-versus-payment so bond and cash move together. Issuers are now paid on bidding day instead of waiting 2-3 days.

Separately, on 10 September 2026, Singapore's three biggest banks, DBS, OCBC and UOB, completed their first live domestic Singapore-dollar interbank payments using tokenised deposits on Swift's blockchain-based ledger, matching and netting obligations before settling through existing systems. Transaction values weren't disclosed. DBS's Rachel Chew said the pilots prove clients can transact USD and SGD payments "any time, any day, including over a weekend." The move follows Swift's July 2026 announcement of 17 banks preparing live transactions on its ledger and a 2 September 2026 US-dollar transaction between First Abu Dhabi Bank and Citibank.

Bitcoin ETFs swing from $746 million outflow to inflow as the Fed hikes rates

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $450.33 million on 15 September 2026, the largest daily withdrawal since 24 June, according to Farside Investors. Fidelity's FBTC led with $214.8 million out, BlackRock's IBIT followed with $161.7 million out, and GBTC, ARKB and BITB lost $44.1 million, $17.4 million and $12.4 million respectively. A second day of redemptions followed on 16 September, with $295.98 million leaving the 12 US spot products per SoSoValue. That took the two-day total to $746 million and net assets to about $95.19 billion.

On 16 September 2026, the FOMC voted 12-0 to raise the federal funds rate a quarter point to 3.75%-4%, its first hike since 2023. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation "remains elevated" while the labor market stays in "good shape." The hike, alongside the CLARITY Act's failed Senate vote a day earlier, pressured crypto markets through the outflow run.

On 17 September 2026, flows reversed to a net inflow of $159.45 million. IBIT alone brought in $183.66 million to $184 million, while FBTC lost $16.64 million and VanEck's HODL lost $7.57 million. IBIT's cumulative inflow since launch stands at $64.016 billion and FBTC's at $10.051 billion, per SoSoValue. Bitcoin itself moved only modestly, trading around $80,845 to $81,084 as of 18 September 2026 and holding above its 50-day EMA near $73,500. Fed projections show 16 of 18 officials expecting at least one more rate rise before year end.

CLARITY Act fails in the Senate, CFTC files its own crypto rules

On 15 September 2026, the Senate voted 49 to 50 on a motion to invoke cloture on H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, short of the 60 votes needed, per the Senate's Daily Press record. Four Republicans voted no: Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis, the last voting no procedurally to preserve his right to file a motion to reconsider. Every voting Democrat also voted no and Senator Chris Coons did not vote.

The sticking points were narrow: enforcement of ethics rules on officials' crypto holdings, whether stablecoin rewards survive and how far developer protections extend. Republican leaders had released a revised text with added ethics restrictions the Sunday before the vote.

Two days later, on 17-18 September 2026, the CFTC filed two proposed rules, "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions" and "Regulation Crypto Asset Markets," with the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review, using existing statutory authority rather than waiting for Congress. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig had previewed the move on 20 August 2026. The plan would let the CFTC designate registered and unregistered crypto exchanges as a "crypto asset market," allowing leveraged or margined crypto trading under CFTC oversight.

OIRA review can run up to 90 days with one 30-day extension. A proposed rule could publish as soon as November or December 2026, with any final binding rule not expected before late 2027. The same week, on 17 September 2026, the SEC issued a five-year "innovation exemption" for onchain trading of tokenized stocks and the CFTC issued a no-action position shielding software developers from registration requirements.

Watch whether the Senate revisits the CLARITY Act after the midterms, and whether the 8-9 December FOMC meeting brings a second hike.