The government of Indonesia returned to its plan to set up a digital assets exchange, publicly announced for the first time back in 2021. The so-called “crypto bourse” is planned to be established by the end of 2022.
According to DealStreetAsia, Indonesian Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga confirmed during NXC International Summit 2022 in Bali that the country is still planning to launch the crypto bourse, but the whole project has been delayed due to additional preparations:
“We will make sure that every requirement, procedure and the necessary steps have been taken.”
Sambuaga also described the inevitable preparatory tasks ahead of the launch, such as assessing which entities “could be included in the bourse” and setting the minimum requirements for them.
Pang Hue Kai, CEO of Tokokrypto — one of 25 licensed crypto exchanges in Indonesia, with a large share owned by Binance — called the project a catalyst for the Indonesian crypto ecosystem.
The first announcement of the national crypto bourse came in December 2021. At the time, it was reported that the venture capital arm of state-owned telecommunication company PT Telkom Indonesia and crypto exchange Binance would form a joint venture.
Related: Mastercard partners with crypto gateway to drive financial inclusion in Indonesia
In a bid to diversify its assets, Indonesian tech company PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk bought a local crypto exchange, PT Kripto Maksima Koin, for 124.84 billion rupiahs ($8.38 million).
According to data from Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, the total transaction volume of crypto assets in Indonesia in 2021 rose more than 1,000% compared with 2020, rising to 859.4 trillion rupiahs ($57.7 billion). Roughly 4% of the country’s population, which is a little under 11 million people, have been investing in crypto.