India’s digital public infrastructure has transformed how millions access financial services. UPI has redefined payments, Aadhaar has simplified identity verification, and Account Aggregators are enabling secure data sharing. UPI alone processed more than 23.2 billion transactions worth nearly ₹29.9 lakh crore in May 2026. The next phase may not be about creating entirely new financial products, but rethinking how existing assets move, settle and are managed in a digital-first economy.
This is where tokenisation, programmable money and digital asset infrastructure could become meaningful.
Often viewed through the lens of speculative trading, these technologies are broader infrastructure innovations. Their real value lies in making financial systems more efficient, programmable and interoperable while retaining the governance, compliance and security standards institutions require.
Tokenisation enables real-world assets such as bonds, funds, invoices or real estate to be represented digitally on programmable platforms. The potential is not simply to create a digital representation of an asset, but to bring issuance, ownership, transfer and settlement closer together.
Recent research by the Bank for International Settlements points to tokenisation’s ability to integrate messaging, reconciliation and settlement into a single process. This could reduce operational friction, improve transparency and enable models such as delivery-versus-payment, where the transfer of an asset and payment can occur simultaneously.
For financial markets, this could improve liquidity, enable fractional ownership and make traditionally less-liquid assets easier to manage. But the bigger opportunity may be programmability: embedding rules around eligibility, settlement, collateral or corporate actions directly into transactions.
Programmable money could take this further. Instead of money simply moving between accounts, transactions could execute automatically when predefined conditions are met. Trade finance, escrow, securities settlement and corporate treasury are potential areas where this could reduce manual intervention.
Stablecoins are also shaping the global debate around programmable money and cross-border settlement. Yet their role needs to be assessed carefully. The BIS’s 2026 assessment highlights both their potential for faster, programmable payments and concerns around financial integrity, interoperability and monetary sovereignty. For India, the opportunity is therefore less about replacing existing payment rails and more about identifying where programmable settlement can solve problems conventional infrastructure cannot.
Cross-border transactions are one such area. Tokenised money and financial assets could eventually enable more atomic settlement, reduce reconciliation and simplify multi-party transactions for globally integrated Indian enterprises.
But technology alone will not drive this transformation.
As digital assets enter institutional workflows, custody, key management, transaction controls, auditability, compliance and operational resilience become foundational. The challenge is not merely securing an asset; it is ensuring every transaction operates within clearly defined governance and risk parameters.
India’s digital journey offers a clear lesson: scale follows trust. The next generation of financial infrastructure will be no different.
The opportunity is not to replace traditional finance with blockchain, but to make financial markets more programmable, transparent and efficient—where the economics, regulation and use case justify it.
The author is Manhar Garegrat, India Head, Liminal Custody.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.
