IFSCA grants Shipfinex a Limited Use Authorisation for maritime asset tokenisation at GIFT City

What was decided

Shipfinex, described as a maritime asset tokenisation and capital-markets platform, announced that IFSCA, the unified regulator of India's international financial services centre at GIFT City, had granted it a Limited Use Authorisation. The authorisation opens a twelve-month monitored programme to test the platform, which digitally represents ownership and participation interests in ships held through ship-owning special-purpose vehicles, in a sandbox environment.

I did not find a separate IFSCA public notice for this grant in the sources checked. The record therefore rests on the company's own release.

Decision body and legal basis

IFSCA was established on April 27, 2020 under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019, and is headquartered at GIFT City, Gandhinagar in Gujarat. It is a unified authority for developing and regulating financial products, services and institutions in the IFSC.

The sandbox route used here is governed by the IFSCA FinTech Sandbox Framework. IFSCA issued it through a circular dated 16 March 2026, replacing the earlier 2022 framework for entities seeking Limited Use Authorisation to test fintech solutions in the IFSCs. The circular bears file number 505/IFSCA-FTec0FTEF/1/2023 and is dated 16.03.2026.

Dates and sequence

A Shipfinex company page says the Limited Use Authorisation was granted by IFSCA in July 2026. This matches the certificate date and shows the October announcement came months after the grant.

Operative terms

The testing covers the full tokenisation lifecycle in a simulated environment. Listed elements include vessel onboarding through exit, onboarding of financial institutions and maritime partners, KYC and AML screening, banking and settlement integration with delivery-versus-payment logic, and a live demonstration of the full transaction flow to the Authority. IFSCA receives view-only ledger access throughout, and progress is reported monthly.

No land area, fee rate, or geographic boundary figure for this grant was found in the sources. Under the framework, boundary conditions are the parameters set in the Limited Use Authorisation letter, such as limits on duration, customer type, transaction size and geographic scope. The letter itself was not found in public sources, so those specific limits are not stated here.

Practical effect

Sandbox testing generally lasts up to 12 months, extendable by six months, with reporting, risk management and user protection requirements. The authorisation and any regulatory relaxations expire at the end of the testing stage. Material changes during testing need prior written approval from the Authority.

After a successful exit, an entity that wants to do business as a fintech in the IFSC is authorised under the appropriate regime, and must then establish an entity or branch in the IFSC. Until then, the grant does not by itself permit a public token offering.

The Dubai approval is separate. Shipfinex's Dubai VARA approval is an In-Principle Approval, which is not an operating licence and does not authorise virtual asset activities until the relevant licence is granted. As of an August 2026 report, no Maritime Asset Tokens had been issued publicly.

Name check

The brief names the developer as GIFT City Ltd. The sources reviewed name GIFT City Company Limited (GIFTCL) as the developer and operator of GIFT City and its SEZ infrastructure. The decision here was taken by IFSCA, not by the developer.

Open points

• The certificate reference and validity dates come from a partial excerpt of the release. They should be checked against the certificate.
• The company release is dated 12 October 2026 but was time-stamped 11 October 2026. This record uses both dates.
• No IFSCA-issued notice for this specific grant was found.