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Cryptocurrencies trend in Indonesia

In November 2023, cryptocurrency transactions in Indonesia reached about 17 trillion Indonesian rupiah, compared to about eight trillion Indonesian rupiah in September 2023. The continuous increase of the crypto transaction value in the country was partly influenced by the decision of Indonesian regulators to permit the trading of cryptocurrencies as commodities in 2019, followed by the official launch of the world's first state-backed cryptocurrency bourse in July 2023. Currently, Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency to own in the country and remains the digital currency with the highest transaction values among Indonesian investors. Apart from Bitcoin and other well-known cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Dogecoin, Binance and Shiba are also popular cryptocurrency among Indonesian investors.

The Cryptocurrency Adoption Index placed Indonesia seventh out of 146 nations in 2023. Indonesia outperformed most other countries in terms of retail service value for both centralized and decentralized finance (DeFi) value. This confirms that Indonesians are embracing digital payment trends. Moreover, the popularity of cryptocurrencies among Indonesian investors as a new source of income was also impacted by the positive trends in the global cryptocurrency market. Another major contributing factor to the cryptocurrency success in the nation is their mobile-first strategy with easily accessible apps. With smartphone penetration rate standing at almost 91 percent in 2024, it is also no wonder that there is more traction from the country’s mobile-heavy user base.

Challenges facing the Indonesian cryptocurrency market

As an emerging market, many investors are beginners in financial investments and are more vulnerable to questionable exchanges and assets. It was reported that Indonesian consumers were heavily hit by the crypto scams, with hundreds of thousands of retail investors caught up in an app-based trading scandal in March 2023. Hence, Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia, has been holding talks on cybersecurity-related matters concerning digital currency to educate Indonesian investors.

In 2024, In order to stimulate growth in the domestic cryptocurrency market, Indonesia's Commodity Futures Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) is considering a tax assessment that would require investors to bear only half the current tax burden. In the country, cryptocurrencies are considered commodities and are therefore subject to value-added tax and income tax. But this situation is set to change when supervision of cryptocurrencies is handed over to OJK, the country's financial services regulator, in 2025. With the growing trend in the number of transactions, traders, and exchanges in the past years, Indonesia’s cryptocurrency market will possibly expand beyond. The cryptocurrency industry in 2024 will still be performing positively, driven by the price of bitcoin, which has been rising sharply since January 2023. The cryptocurrency market is also expected to become even more attractive with the Bitcoin halving, which occurred in April 2024.