Shipfinex Sandbox Authorisation
On 13 October 2026, Shipfinex announced that the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) granted it a Limited Use Authorisation (Certificate No. FNT20261108) to operate as a FinTech Sandbox Entity in the IFSCA FinTech Innovation Sandbox. The authorisation, dated 21 July 2026, is valid until 20 July 2027 and follows an In‑Principle Approval issued on 18 June 2026, establishing a twelve‑month monitored programme.
The sandbox programme will test the complete maritime asset tokenisation lifecycle in a simulated environment isolated from the live market. The testing mandate covers vessel onboarding, global KYC and AML screening of vessels and counterparties, onboarding of financial institutions and maritime partners, integration of banking and settlement with delivery‑versus‑payment logic, and a live demonstration of the full transaction flow to IFSCA, which will have view‑only ledger access and receive monthly progress reports.
The initiative is positioned within India’s Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, which aims to place the country among the world’s top five shipbuilding nations. The vision is supported by a planned ₹80 lakh crore of investment and a ₹25,000 crore Maritime Development Fund announced in the Union Budget 2025. GIFT IFSC, where the sandbox operates, has already notified ship leasing as a financial product (2022) and hosts approximately 27 registered ship‑leasing entities and 30 vessels. In July 2026 the government exempted IFSC units from coastal‑shipping licensing requirements for chartering foreign vessels in international trade.
Shipfinex also holds an In‑Principle Approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for virtual‑asset broker‑dealer services (Reference IPA/26/01/002) and maintains registrations in Poland and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The platform is developed by a multi‑jurisdictional group headquartered in Dubai.
Capt. Vikas Pandey, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shipfinex, stated that the sandbox allows testing of the complete maritime tokenisation cycle under regulator observation, contributing to transparent capital‑markets access for maritime assets. Prasanna Lohar, Founder and President of the India Blockchain Forum, highlighted that tokenisation is the natural next layer for ship leasing in GIFT IFSC.
The press release includes a disclaimer that the Limited Use Authorisation does not constitute a regulatory endorsement, that sandbox activities involve only test and dummy transactions, that no live client money is used, and that virtual assets remain subject to volatility and lack of financial protection.