Indonesia’s Crypto Market Booms as Transactions Hit $1.92B in February

Indonesia reported a surge in crypto transactions, reaching Indonesian Rupiah 30 trillion ($1.92 billion) in February, the country's crypto regulator reported.

The number of registered crypto investors in the country also hit 19 million last month, marking an addition of 170,000 users from January, the Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (Bappebti) said.

Bappebti attributes this growth to positive market sentiments fueled by bitcoin’s (BTC) price surge and the rally in altcoin, tokens other than bitcoin.

The regulator still aims to match or exceed the transaction volume from 2021, the last bull run, of $51.28 billion, in 2024. Bappebti’s Tirta Karma Senjaya highlighted that, given the downward trend in 2022 and 2023, a 2024 rebound was anticipated, with the upcoming bitcoin halving seen as a key catalyst.

The best way to crypto transaction target would be to remove or reduce taxes on crypto. Currently, crypto transactions are taxed at 0.10% for Income Tax and 0.11% for VAT on users, and exchanges are taxed at 0.02% per transaction for the crypto bourse, depository, and clearing house.

“I’ve previously said that this industry (crypto) is still in its embryonic stage, so imposing heavy taxes might kill the industry,” Tirta stated at a Reku exchange event earlier.

The transfer of crypto oversight to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in January 2025 could bring about significant changes, possibly reclassifying crypto as securities and revising VAT policies.