Indonesia intends to grant the Financial Services Authority (OJK) the authority to oversee cryptocurrency markets and regulate cryptocurrency investments.
In cooperation with the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, the nation's Trade Ministry now regulates the digital asset sector. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia's finance minister, stated that the nation would give OJK the authority to protect consumer interests.
Indonesia Concerned About the Assets of Investors
The most recent sector developments, including the demise of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, had an impact on Indonesia's intentions. After Terra's crash in May, the incident led to yet another massacre, wiping out billions of dollars from the market.
According to sources, Indrawati's latest proposal is a component of more comprehensive legislation that was filed to the government earlier this year. The bill is currently being discussed in the national parliament.
According to Indonesia's finance minister, the country must impose stringent laws to protect all of its financial sector technology innovation, including cryptocurrency assets. Indrawati stated during a parliamentary hearing on Thursday:
“We need to build a mechanism of supervision and investor protection that is quite strong and reliable, especially for investment instruments that are high risk.”
The FTX saga, which started last week after leaked Alameda documents revealed massive illiquid exposures to some altcoins, including SOL and FTT, she added, has caused "turbulence recently" in the cryptocurrency industry.
Indonesian Investors Prefer Crypto Rather Than Stocks
Indonesia has not yet accept cryptocurrencies as legal money, although it does permit their usage in the commodity market for investment.
When presenting the new plan to parliament, Indrawati remarked that there are more cryptocurrency investors in Indonesia than there are stock market investors.
Approximately 15.1 million investors were said to be involved in digital assets as of June, compared to 9.1 million investors in the traditional stock market. Indonesia only has four million cryptocurrency investors in 2020, indicating a significant growth over the previous two years.
