CIMB Islamic Bank Settles RM1.38 Billion Tokenised Sukuk With Tokenised Deposits

CIMB Islamic Bank has completed a pilot in which tokenised sukuk were settled using tokenised deposits, marking the first time Malaysia has paired both instruments in a single transaction. The issuance fell under the bank’s existing Senior Sukuk Wakalah Programme, with tenors ranging from five to fifteen years. Of the total RM1.68 billion raised, RM1.38 billion (approximately $342 million) was tokenised and taken up by twelve institutional investors, while the remaining RM300 million was issued in conventional sukuk form.

The significance of the exercise lies in the combination rather than either instrument alone. Tokenised securities have circulated in various markets for several years, but settling them against tokenised money on a distributed ledger closes the loop that most earlier pilots left open, removing the reliance on traditional cash settlement rails and the friction that comes with it. Greater automation and reduced settlement delays are the practical payoffs that practitioners most frequently cite for this pairing.

For Malaysia’s digital asset market, the pilot represents a convergence of two development tracks that had previously run in parallel. Whether the structure scales into standard issuance practice will depend on regulatory appetite, investor demand among institutional counterparties, and the interoperability of the underlying infrastructure with broader market systems.