Indonesia launches new crypto bourse, clearing house

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia has launched a national crypto asset bourse to provide regulators with transaction records and better protect crypto investors, the government announced this week.

The launch of the exchange and clearing house is also intended to strengthen monitoring of the booming sector amid a transition in regulatory oversight, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti).

Indonesia bans the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, but allows investment in the assets. Such investment boomed during the pandemic, with data showing that as of June, 17.54 million people in the country had invested in the digital assets, more than the number of investors registered with the stock exchange.

Rising global interest rates have, however, dampened demand for crypto assets in recent months.

Crypto transactions in Indonesia during the January-June period were down 68.7% from the same period last year to reach 66.44 trillion rupiah ($4.42 billion), with Tether, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Binance Coin being traded the most, according to Bappebti.

The new bourse will list existing licensed crypto companies, such as Binance’s Tokocrypto, Indodax and others as traders.

PT Bursa Komoditi Nusantara will run the bourse and PT Kliring Berjangka Indonesia will clear transactions there, Bappebti chief Didid Noordiantmoko said in a statement. PT Tennet Depository Indonesia is appointed as crypto asset storage manager.

A new law signed earlier this year called for the regulation, supervision and oversight of crypto to be transferred to the Financial Services Authorities from Bappebti, with a two-year transition period.

($1 = 15,026.0000 rupiah)

(Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)