The Indonesian government is proceeding with its plans to launch a national cryptocurrency exchange available to the citizens in the upcoming weeks. According to Tembo, a local news agency, Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (CFTRA), also called Bappebti, has announced that it will launch the national crypto exchange on July 14.
Didid Noordiatmoko, the head of Bappebti, allegedly stated that only the national exchange will have the authority for use in all crypto transactions. The official confirmed that the supervisory agency agreed on the stock exchange rules yesterday, which included Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. Didid also noted that the exchange would offer trading through an integrated application that the CFTRA has tested already.
Cryptos on the exchange to remain ‘local’
The national cryptocurrency exchange in Indonesia was initially to debut in June 2023. However, Bappebti postponed it despite the second delay from its original target of December 2022. The project got off the ground in 2021 when the leaders of an Indonesian telecom company with government backing announced a partnership with Binance to build a combined cryptocurrency exchange.
According to the latest report, Bappebti intends to limit cryptocurrency sales to local transactions while maintaining them in line with global market trends. If Bappebti approves them, these would also encompass cryptocurrency prices.
Bappebti also let Zulkifli Hasan, the trade minister, know about the development. According to Noordiatmoko, if they do not receive more instructions, Bappebti will sign the authorization, giving licensed traders one month to join the exchange.
Around 383 crypto assets and ten local coins can be exchanged in Indonesia, according to reports during the beginning of the year. At the time, Bappebti was concurrently reviewing 151 other assets and ten coins.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that commodity contracts and digital assets have been trading together under Bappebti’s regulation. The FSA, a securities agency, will take over regulatory authority over the assets over the next two years, as Noordiatmoko revealed a few months ago.
Indonesia supports crypto asset
Indonesia has been very supportive of crypto assets. The central bank released a white paper outlining its digital currency and approved a law classifying cryptocurrencies and other digital assets as regulated financial securities.
The county was also one of the most rapidly expanding cryptocurrency markets in 2022, mostly due to speculative trading. The nation’s trade ministry registered around 14 million cryptocurrency traders last year, compared to 9 million stock traders. Meanwhile, trading value went from the 859 trillion rupiah witnessed the prior year to about 300 trillion rupiah ($19.2 billion).
Indonesia favors de-dollarization initiatives and the BRICS nations’ aspirations to promote non-U.S. fiat currencies. The Bank of Indonesia’s governor, Perry Warjiyo, declared in April that Indonesia has started diversifying its currency use by introducing the LCT, going in the same path as the BRICS.
The view of the government on cryptocurrencies is consistent with Chinese court decisions that have categorized non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital currencies as property. A Hong Kong judge ruled that cryptocurrency holdings should be considered “property” during a court dispute in April regarding the now-defunct crypto exchange Gatecoin. Since Indonesia took the initiative to categorize 501 crypto assets as commodities, including BTC, ADA, BUSD, DOT, XTZ, and SAND, several other nations may follow Bappebti’s lead.
Russia has been eyeing launching a crypto exchange since November 2022. The lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the Duma, laid down amendments that would provide a framework for establishing a national crypto exchange. However, less than a year later, in April 2023, Russia gave up on the idea and directed focus elsewhere, such as regulating the country’s exchanges.
