Indonesia is preparing to introduce new laws to regulate crypto exchange. Under the revised regulatory framework, two-thirds of crypto exchange directors must be Indonesian citizens residing in the country.
Indonesia plans to tighten crypto regulation
Indonesia is preparing to issue new regulations to tighten regulation of crypto exchanges, the country’s trade minister and officials from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bapebti) said at a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on Tuesday.
One of the new laws requires two-thirds of the directors of crypto exchanges to be Indonesian citizens living in the country. Bapebti Acting Head Didid Nurdiatmoko told Parliament:
In this way, at least we can prevent the top management from emigrating if there is a problem.
The new measure comes after Southeast Asia-focused crypto exchange Zipmex had to stop issuing funds following financial difficulties.
Crypto exchanges are also required to use a third party to store client funds. They are also prohibited from reinvesting accumulated crypto assets.
In a statement to reporters after the parliamentary hearing, Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambugaga said:
We don’t want to give licenses (for exchange) carelessly, so only to those who meet the requirements and are trustworthy.
Bapbti said it will issue the new law soon, without giving a specific time frame.
Sambuga confirmed that the Indonesian government still plans to launch a crypto asset bourse this year. The launch of the stock market has been delayed several times.
Indonesia allows trading of crypto assets as a commodity but does not recognize crypto as a means of payment. In April, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Taxation announced that it has set both income tax (PPh) on capital gains from crypto investments and value added tax (VAT) on crypto purchases at 0.1%.
It increased 1,224% to 859.4 trillion rupiah ($57.5 billion) in 2021 from 64.9 trillion rupiah in 2020, Bapebti said. In the first six months of this year, there were 15.1 million crypto users, trading 212 trillion rupiah worth of cryptocurrencies.
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