Indonesian Government Plans to Launch Crypto Bourse This Year, Official Revealed

The Indonesian government is set to launch a crypto bourse by the end of this year, Indonesia's Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga reportedly revealed.

Speaking on the sidelines of NXC International Summit 2022 by WIR Group in Bali, the trade minister explained that the crypto bourse initiative is part of the government's efforts to protect consumers amid rising interest in digital currencies.

Originally set to launch in 2021, the bourse launch was postponed due to the complexity of the process.

"We will make sure that every requirement, procedure, and the necessary steps have been taken," Minister Sambuaga was quoted as saying. "This is proof that we are being careful. We don't want to be hasty as it may cause us to miss something."

He elaborated: "Creating a bourse needs many preparations. We need to see which entities should be included in the bourse."

"Secondly, we need to validate the said entities," the government official continued. "Thirdly, there is minimum capital and other requirements related to custodian depository, technical things."

Tokocrypto CEO Pang Xue Kai believes that a crypto bourse can help increase the number of participants in the crypto sector and interest from institutional investors. Tokocrypto is one of the 25 cryptocurrency exchanges licensed by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti).

Pang opined: "The industry will grow, we'll start seeing more local projects."

Indonesia allows the trading of crypto assets as commodities but does not recognize crypto as a payment instrument. In April, the Indonesian Directorate General of Taxes said it had set income tax (PPh) on capital gains from crypto investments and value-added tax (VAT) on crypto purchases at 0.1%.

Source: Bitcoin.com