Indonesian Government to Launch Crypto Bourse This Year, Official Says

The Indonesian government is set to launch a crypto bourse by the end of this year, a high-ranking government official reportedly revealed. “We will make sure that every requirement, procedure, and the necessary steps have been taken,” he emphasized.

The Indonesian government is planning to launch a crypto bourse by year-end, Dealstreetasia reported Wednesday, citing Indonesia’s Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga.

Speaking on the sidelines of NXC International Summit 2022 by WIR Group in Bali, the trade minister explained that the crypto bourse initiative is part of the government’s efforts to protect consumers amid rising interest in digital currencies.

Originally set to launch in 2021, the bourse launch was postponed due to the complexity of the process, the publication conveyed.

“We will make sure that every requirement, procedure, and the necessary steps have been taken,” Minister Sambuaga was quoted as saying. “This is proof that we are being careful. We don’t want to be hasty as it may cause us to miss something.” He elaborated:

Creating a bourse needs many preparations. We need to see which entities should be included in the bourse.

“Secondly, we need to validate the said entities,” the government official continued. “Thirdly, there is minimum capital and other requirements related to custodian depository, technical things.”

Tokocrypto CEO Pang Xue Kai believes that a crypto bourse can help increase the number of participants in the crypto sector and interest from institutional investors. Tokocrypto is one of the 25 cryptocurrency exchanges licensed by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti).

Pang opined:

The industry will grow, we’ll start seeing more local projects.

Indonesia allows the trading of crypto assets as commodities but does not recognize crypto as a payment instrument. In April, the Indonesian Directorate General of Taxes said it had set income tax (PPh) on capital gains from crypto investments and value-added tax (VAT) on crypto purchases at 0.1%.

In January, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) warned that financial firms are not allowed to offer and facilitate sales of crypto assets. However, the country’s Minister of Trade Muhammad Luthfi said in September last year that the Indonesian government will not ban cryptocurrencies as China did. Nonetheless, Indonesia’s top Islamic body, the country’s authority on Shariah compliance, has declared cryptocurrency haram, forbidden for Muslims under Islamic law.

Crypto transactions in Indonesia increased 1,224% to 859.4 trillion rupiahs ($57.5 billion) in 2021 from 64.9 trillion in 2020, according to Bappebti. In the first six months of this year, there were 15.1 million crypto users in Indonesia, transacting cryptocurrencies worth 212 trillion rupiahs.

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