The Trade Ministry’s Futures Exchange Supervisory Board, known as Bappebti, has come out with new regulations that classify cryptos as commodities after much debate in 2018. “Those regulations will become the legal basis for the trading of crypto assets as commodities that could become the subjects of futures contracts and other derivative contracts traded in the stock market,” Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana, Bappebti’s chairman, said this Monday. Some Indonesian cryptonians, however, are not happy with the new extensive requirements that includes a capital bond of some $70 million to set-up a legal crypto exchange.

Sumardi Fung, co-founder and CEO of an Indonesian crypto exchange, Rekeningku, said he wished to discuss the new regulations with Bappebti, especially the minimum capital requirements which are higher than for setting up a bank in the country. “We hope that the issuance of the regulations will improve confidence and integrity among the traders in futures commodities for carrying out transactions in both crypto assets and digital gold,” Wardhana said. The central bank there banned crypto payments for goods and services at the end of 2017, leading to a period of uncertainty on whether Indonesia would follow China or Singapore.

“Regarding payments, bitcoin is prohibited,” Onny Widjanarko, head of Indonesia’s Central Bank (BI), said in January 2018, warning “against a threat to financial stability” which he said cryptos might endanger. Where trading and other aspects are concerned, however, Indonesia has now provided legal certainty in allowing the buying and selling of bitcoin and other crypto assets. They’re the biggest muslim country on earth with an Indonesian company settling a debate on whether bitcoin and cryptos in general are sharia compliant by stating last summer: “Blockchain gives you mathematical proof of ownership and that’s overall much more in line with the spirit of Islamic finance than any digital fiat money.” Coin spectator is an automated news aggregation service. All copyrights belong to their respective owners. Images and text owned by copyright holders are used in reference to and promotion of those respective parties. Read in Full

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