Indonesian authorities to launch their own crypto exchange to control digital assets

On the state trading platform, there will be strengthened, compared to private ones, customer identification procedures

01.09.2022 - 10:50

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What’s new? The Indonesian government intends to launch a cryptocurrency exchange by the end of 2022. According to Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga, the initiative will be implemented as part of measures to strengthen consumer protection amid growing interest in digital assets. According to Deal Street Asia, the state-owned crypto exchange was scheduled to open back in 2021, but the launch was pushed back to Q1 2022 and later indefinitely.

Material by Deal Street Asia

What else did the Indonesian authorities add? The exchange will have a stricter know your customer (KYC) procedure during registration compared to private platforms, but will require less capital to enter, Sambuaga noted.

Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti), which is also responsible for the field of digital assets, stopped issuing registration certificates for crypto exchanges last month. However, there are already about 25 licensed platforms operating in the country.

Bappebti data also showed that in 2021, cryptocurrency transactions in Indonesia amounted to 859,4 trillion rupiahs ($57,7 billion), up from 64,9 trillion rupiahs ($8,1 billion) in 2020.

Earlier, analytics firm Accenture reported that 52% of large Asian investors owned digital assets in Q1 2022. More than 3200 investors with $100 000 to $1 million in capital from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand took part in the survey. Analysts predict an increase in their number to 73%.

In January, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) banned financial companies from offering and facilitating sales of cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, in May, the Indonesian tax office imposed a VAT on crypto transactions and an income tax on capital gains.

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