Indonesia Starts the Year with a Plan to Set up a Crypto Stocks Exchange; Here’s How it Could Benefit the Crypto Market.

Indonesia is stepping into the new year with plans to reform its crypto regulations. They have figured out a way to include innovations in their crypto ecosystem while also finding a way to regulate cryptocurrency properly. The country plans to create a National crypto stocks exchange ahead of moving its crypto regulatory power from commodities jurisdiction to securities authorities.

Crypto assets in the country are currently traded alongside other commodity contracts under the watch of the Commodities Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, with the name Bappebti. However, as part of a more extensive financial sector reform in Indonesia, the FSA will instead assume regulatory power over financial assets for the next two years, which would be ample time for the exchange to be appropriately set up.

The exchange will list companies in the digital asset industry, including some of the twenty-five exchanges that have already been granted licenses by the Financial security of Indonesia, Bappebti. The exchange will be centered on protecting consumers of crypto assets as the interest in digital currencies continues to skyrocket. 

Indonesia believes that creating the exchange will need time as there would be a need to validate what entities need to be included and a need for capital as there is currently minimum capital, with the requirement of other necessities for a custodian depository or technical institutions in general.

Indonesia’s crypto transactions as of 2021 gained higher returns, with the year-end transactions totaling 859.4 trillion rupiahs and the users surpassing 15 million. The results and attention cryptocurrency was getting in the country was what motivated the government to conjure up the idea of exchange in late 2022, with the intent to build up on it this year, even with the bearish market that has plagued the ecosystem, with intentions to use it instead to regulate cryptocurrency in Indonesia properly.

The country also saw its biggest tech company Go To Gojek Tokopedia (GOTO), move into the crypto market in 2022 after it purchased a local crypto exchange Kripto Maksima Koin, which is one of the 25 crypto firms that had gotten licensed by Bappebti. 

Indonesia plans to embrace cryptocurrency even more and ensure that it has provisions for crypto-related services for the citizens of the country. They are also working on introducing a central bank digital currency to the general public. Through the Governor of Indonesia, a pilot design for the digital rupiah was announced, and the country’s apex financial body confirmed that it soon became available in the market. 

In the first eleven months of 2022, the Indonesian crypto market saw an increase in investors, totaling 16 million, a significant increase from 11.2 at the end of 2021. The trading value was, however, hit with a drop to around 300 trillion rupiahs, a vast decline from 859 trillion rupiahs recorded in 2021.

The news that the Indonesian government is willing to create a crypto stocks exchange is interesting, as Indonesia once had a ban on crypto payments. However, there was still permitted to trade virtual assets legally. Could this be their way of opening more barriers surrounding the crypto market in the country?

As Crypto sees more countries preparing to create more regulations regarding it, there are two ways to look at it. One way is that they view Crypto with more suspicion and are trying to protect the general public against it by making stricter laws guiding it. Another way to look at it could be that the government has seen that cryptocurrency continues to garner interest from the public, and the best way to control it is to embrace it and create proper routes for it while still ensuring that it goes through the legal course needed to protect both the consumers and the interest of the government. 

One thing some countries looking to reform their crypto regulations have in common is their country’s digital currency being created or already created. It will help drive more attention and hype for the coins if digital assets are accessible in the country beforehand. 

How it Benefits the Crypto Market

The creation of this exchange will drive another new demographic of people to the crypto market. It could also do the job of bringing back a demographic that fled the crypto market as a result of panic. If they see that the government is involved in this exchange, it might help make them feel more secure and trusting, it may not diminish the possibility of losses, but it’ll create a feeling of safety.