Digital assets, blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have all be gaining a lot of attention recently in Indonesia, so much so that CoinGape among others, are suggesting that there will be a crypto stock exchange by the end of the year, something that Jerry Sambuaga, Indonesia’s Deputy Trade Minister has reaffirmed, according to CoinGape.
The minister has reportedly said that introducing a crypto stock exchange involves preparations, validations of entities and minimum capital requirements. Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest digital E-Conomy, has been contemplating having a cryptocurrency exchange for a while now. The launch was expected in 2021, however, due to some complexities in the process, it was postponed to the first quarter of 2022.
Indonesia has around 25-licensed crypto trading firms including the troubled crypto exchange Zipmex under Bappebti, which is Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency.
As per Bappebti data, crypto transactions in Indonesia have experienced a growth of almost 1000-percent from IDR 64.9-trillion in 2020 to IDR 859.4-trillion in 2021. Nearly 4-percent of the country’s population has been trading in cryptocurrency. Besides, in the last few years, the country has witnessed an accelerating tide of celebrity coins as well as nonfungible token (NFT) projects.
Recently, Indonesia’s homegrown tech giant, GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GoTo) stepped into the cryptocurrency market with the acquisition of local crypto exchange Kripto Maksima Koin. It is believed that the company has made this acquisition worth USD 8.38-million to diversify its business.
GoTo was created out of a merger between the e-commerce platform Tokopedia and ride-hailing app Gojek in 2021. In April, the company raised over USD 1-billion in an initial public offering (IPO) and claims to contribute more than 2-percent to Indonesia’s GDP.
Source: CoinGape
