Indonesia announces the launch of state-owned cryptocurrency exchange and clearinghouse.

After multiple announcements and lengthy preparations, Indonesia has finally established a national cryptocurrency exchange.

Indonesia Cryptocurrency Exchange

According to the announcement by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency Bappebti, the structure of cryptocurrency exchanges in Indonesia is quite different from the common ones. The authority has divided the business of cryptocurrency trading among three major institutions:

• Trading | Commodity Exchange PT Bursa Komoditi Nusantara

• Clearing | Indonesian Futures Clearing House PT Kliring Berjangka Indonesia

• Custody | Depository Institution PT Tennet Depository Indonesia

The announcement emphasizes that this is not operated solely by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency CoFTRA, but also requires cooperation from the Financial Services Authority OJK, Bank Indonesia BI, and the Ministry of Finance.

It is also mentioned that in the first half of 2023, the cryptocurrency trading volume in Indonesia has decreased by nearly 68.7% compared to the previous year, attributed to market downturn, liquidity crisis, and the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike policy, causing investors to shift their behavior from trading to savings.

However, the article concludes on a positive note:

From the perspective of technology adoption in blockchain, more and more companies like Meta, Google, and Twitter are beginning to integrate blockchain technology into their business, proving that cryptocurrency asset trading still has a promising future.

Repeated Claims of Launching State-owned Exchange

Since 2020, Indonesian officials have repeatedly claimed to launch a state-owned cryptocurrency exchange to attract the public away from private trading institutions, and now it has finally taken shape.

Cointelegraph reported that this will be the only legal cryptocurrency exchange in Indonesia, although the announcement did not emphasize this aspect.

It was only in mid-December last year that Binance announced the acquisition of the Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto. Binance founder Zhao Changpeng CZ stated that Binance was already a major shareholder of Toko from the beginning, and this time they were just injecting more cash and increasing their stake.

CZ did not respond to the launch of the state-owned exchange in Indonesia, and it is unclear whether it will have any impact on Tokocrypto.