Indodax to Comply with Bappebti's New Regulation for License

Indodax, the biggest crypto asset market platform in Indonesia, announced its main focus to comply with the new regulations issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Bappebti) on February, 12th.

Oscar Darmawan, Indodax's CEO said the team wants the crypto asset market platform to acquire official license. Currently, Indodax is a company under PT Indodax Nasional Indonesia.

He admits some points to highlight as an issue. In his opinion, the required capital for business players to register as crypto asset sellers is quite high.

In the Bappebti's Law No. 5 in 2019 of Technical Rules to Organize Crypto Asset Physical Market in the future market include (1) Capital for futures company of Rp1.5 trillion, (2) Capital for crypto asset storage of Rp1.2 trillion, and (3) Capital for crypto asset trading of Rp1 trillion.

"We're running those three points, therefore we (need) three licenses. Our focus this year is to be a crypto asset market platform with license," he said in the Indodax's Badai Hadiah Pers Conference last time.

Darmawan said he'll keep discussing with some parties including Bappebti to explore the new regulation. "We're indeed trying to get permission. However [in terms of regulation] we let Bappebti to take control, we'll try to comply and discuss," he added.

Currently, Indodax have more than 30 digital assets to trade with 1.5 million members in Southeast Asia per December 2018. Last year's income is claimed to have increased by two times from the previous year. He aims for an additional 500 thousand new users this year.

Meanwhile, Indodax' Chief Technology Officer, William Sutanto said the team is trying to comply with the new regulation in terms of technology. One is to obtain ISO certification.

Included in the regulation, some required ISO certifications, such as ISO 27001 (Information Security Management System), ISO 27017 (cloud security), and 27018 (cloud privacy) if the crypto asset physical sellers are using cloud.

"This year, [certification] must be obtained. There will be further discussion," he added.

Tokenized Economy Phenomenon

One of the concrete implication of cryptocurrency is tokenized economy realization in the future. All physical assets to financial can be converted to token in real time.

Rahmat Waluyanto, PT Kustodian Sentral Efek Indonesia's (KSEI) Chief Commissioner has predicted the tokenized economy to be a big phenomenon worldwide, at least in 5-10 years ahead.

He said the cryptocurrency market capitalization has reached $211 billion worldwide per 2018. The fundraising of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) has exceeded $15 billion.

Currently, cryptocurrency is indeed illegitimate in Indonesia because it's considered a commodity. Unless the other countries where crypto has been traded in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) capital market.

"The token system is not very impactful, yet raises opportunities and implications, to build up financial system. In addition, to make advance access to financial inclusion," he mentioned at the event.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian