The crypto market in Indonesia is booming judging by $1.92 billion in transactions in February. The number of registered crypto investors rose to 19 million users last month.
Indonesia is booming
The country has seen a surge in crypto transactions, amounting to 30 trillion Indonesian Rupiah ($1.92 billion) in February, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (Bappebti), the country’s regulatory body. The number of registered crypto investors in the country also reached 19 million last month. That’s 170,000 new users in one month.
Bappebti attributes this growth to positive market sentiments, driven by the rise in bitcoin (BTC) prices and the rally in altcoins. The watchdog is still aiming to match or exceed 2021’s transaction volume, the last bull run, of $51.28 billion by 2024. Bappebti’s Tirta Karma Senjaya emphasizes that given the downward trend in 2022 and 2023, a recovery is expected in 2024, with the upcoming bitcoin halving as a key catalyst.
The best way to achieve the goal for crypto transactions is to eliminate or reduce taxes on crypto. Currently, crypto transactions in the country are taxed at 0.10% for income tax and 0.11% for VAT on users. Exchanges are also charged 0.02% per transaction for trading, storing and clearing cryptos.
“I said before that this industry (crypto) is still in its embryonic stage, so imposing heavy taxes could kill this industry,” Tirta said during a Reku exchange event earlier.
The transfer of supervision of crypto to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in January 2025 could bring significant changes, possibly with a reclassification of crypto as securities and an overhaul of VAT policy.
Source: https://bitcoinmagazine.nl/nieuws/bitcoin-markt-in-indonesie-boomt-192-miljard-dollar-aan-transacties-in-februari
