Crypto in Indonesia

Indonesia's crypto regulatory framework is bifurcated: Bank Indonesia (BI) prohibits cryptocurrency as a means of payment under Law No. 7 of 2011 on Currency and BI Regulation No. 18/40/PBI/2016, while Bappebti (the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency) classifies crypto as a tradable commodity under Regulation No. 5 of 2019, effective May 2019. This dual approach allows crypto trading but not payments. In 2021, Bappebti issued Regulation No. 8 of 2021, requiring all crypto exchanges to register and mandating that trading occur on approved platforms. As of 2023, 25 exchanges are registered, including Indodax and Tokocrypto. The Ministry of Trade's Regulation No. 99 of 2022 further tightened oversight, imposing a 0.1% transaction tax and requiring exchanges to report trades. In January 2025, oversight of crypto assets will transfer from Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) under the Financial Sector Development and Strengthening Act (P2SK Law, enacted January 2023), marking a significant shift toward financial-sector regulation. Bank Indonesia is also researching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Rupiah, under Project Garuda, but no launch date is set.

Indonesia taxes cryptocurrency transactions under Ministry of Finance Regulation No. 68/PMK.03/2022, effective May 1, 2022. The framework imposes a 0.1% final income tax on the transaction value for crypto asset sales, and an additional 0.11% value-added tax (VAT) on purchases from registered exchanges, bringing the total effective tax on a buy-sell round trip to 0.21%. For transactions on unregistered exchanges, the income tax rate doubles to 0.2% and VAT to 0.22%. Taxpayers must report crypto holdings in their annual tax returns if total assets exceed IDR 100 million (approximately $6,500). The tax applies regardless of profit or loss, and exchanges are required to withhold and remit the taxes. In 2023, the government collected IDR 1.2 trillion ($78 million) in crypto taxes, up from IDR 800 billion in 2022, reflecting growing trading volumes. The tax regime is relatively simple but criticized for applying to gross transaction value rather than net gains, potentially discouraging active trading.

Indonesia has emerged as a Southeast Asian crypto powerhouse, with over 7 million registered crypto users as of 2024, according to Bappebti. Trading volumes on registered exchanges reached IDR 300 trillion ($19.5 billion) in 2023, a 40% increase from 2022. Retail investors dominate, but institutional interest is rising: in 2023, Tokocrypto partnered with Binance to offer institutional custody, and Indodax launched a platform for high-net-worth individuals. Use cases include investment, remittances, and DeFi, though crypto payments remain banned. The young, tech-savvy population (median age 30) and high mobile penetration (over 70%) drive adoption. However, the 2022 crypto crash and the collapse of FTX impacted sentiment; user growth slowed to 10% in 2023 from 50% in 2021. The government's plan to shift oversight to OJK in 2025 is expected to boost institutional confidence and attract more traditional finance players.