Abi Abadi Tisnadisastra
Managing Partner

Abi’s practice covers a broad range of corporate and commercial areas, including mergers & acquisitions, restructuring, joint ventures, and foreign investment. He has been involved in numerous cross-border acquisitions and investments in companies from various industries including banking, financial services, manufacturing, information technology, e-commerce, and financial technology (Fintech). He also advises foreign investors on operations, corporate governance, and legal compliance, advising, whether at the outset of their investment or in connection with the compliant functioning of their ongoing businesses.

Abi is recognized for his in-depth knowledge of financial services and information technology sectors, having advised local and multinational financial institutions (multi-finance, insurance, and venture capital companies), tech players, and investors in investing and consolidating operations in Indonesia. He advises clients across the Fintech ecosystem from start-ups to large technology companies, tech investors, financial institutions as well as industry associations. Abi also counsels clients on Data Protection and Privacy, Blockchain technology, and Cryptocurrency.

Prayoga Mokoginta
Counsel

Yoga specializes in advising on tech-related legal matters. While he handles a variety of areas of legal practice, Yoga mainly focuses his practice on representing Indonesian and multinational clients in merger and acquisition transactions, personal data protection/data privacy, technology, fintech and payment system, e-commerce, and general corporate legal matters.

He has an in-depth understanding of regulatory frameworks as well as extensive industry best-practice knowledge in the field of personal data protection and tech-industry.

Aloysius Andrew Jonathan
Associate

Andrew specializes in personal data protection/data privacy compliance, fintech, payment services, e-commerce regulations, and other tech related legal matters. Andrew also has experience in advising clients on employment, anti-bribery/corruption, and general corporate compliance issues as well as assisting multinational clients in conducting internal investigations and cross-border M&A.

Prior to joining ATD Law, Andrew previously assisted as an intern at one of the reputable law firms in Indonesia that specializes in dispute and arbitration matters. Andrew holds a bachelor’s degree in law (S.H.) from Universitas Prasetiya Mulya. Andrew is fluent in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Key Development and Trends of Digital Financial Asset Industry in Indonesia

1. The Reform of Indonesia’s Digital Financial Asset Regulatory Framework and Recent Market Developments

Indonesia’s digital financial asset market began as a commodity-style trading ecosystem. Digital financial assets were supervised by the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Badan Pengawas Perdagangan Berjangka Komoditi “Bappebti”) under the Ministry of Trade and the market was designed around licensed trading, a central exchange, clearing, and custody infrastructure rather than around securities issuance or payment use.

That architecture underwent a reform in substance when the Financial Sector Development and Strengthening Law (as lastly amended by Law No. 4 of 2026) provided the mandate to transfer regulatory and supervisory authority over digital financial assets, including crypto assets and their derivatives, from Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan “OJK”). Implemented through Government Regulation No. 49 of 2024, Bappebti formally transferred regulatory and supervisory authority to OJK on 10 January 2025. The transition was intended to apply the principle of “same activities, same risks, same regulation,” deepen integrated financial markets, and preserve consumer confidence.

The result is not a simple rebranding of crypto from “commodity” to “finance,” but a more deliberate institutionalisation of the market to align with financial services practices. Crypto assets remain “assets” rather than legal tender or privately issued money, but the shift under OJK imports financial-sector discipline and compliance into digital asset activity. The supervision under OJK introduces items such as fit-and-proper governance, market conduct, consumer asset segregation, consumer protection, personal data protection, cyber and operational resilience, AML/CFT/CPF controls, and a more capital-markets-like division between exchange, clearing, custody, and trading intermediaries into the digital financial asset market.

Indonesia’s digital financial asset market is not experimental in scale and has grown significantly. OJK reported that, as of March 2026, 1,464 crypto assets and 77 digital financial asset derivatives were tradeable in Indonesia. OJK had approved 31 entities in the crypto trading ecosystem: two exchanges, two clearing and settlement guarantee institutions, two custodians, and 25 digital financial asset traders. Consumer accounts reached 21.37 million in March 2026, while monthly spot crypto transactions reached Rp22.24 trillion and digital financial asset derivative transactions reached Rp5.80 trillion.

A significant structural development occurred in January 2026, when OJK granted PT Fortuna Integritas Mandiri, operating as ICEx, a business licence as a digital financial asset exchange effective 5 January 2026. ICEx operates within ICEx Group, a vertically integrated ecosystem comprising the exchange itself, Crypto Asset Clearing International (CACI) for clearing/settlement, and International Crypto Custodian (ICC) for digital financial asset custody and management, each independently licensed by OJK. ICEx Group was established by a consortium of eleven of Indonesia’s largest licensed digital financial asset traders, which raised approximately IDR 1 trillion (approximately USD 70 million) to build such infrastructure. This model creates a vertically coordinated infrastructure group within the digital financial asset market: exchange, clearing and custodian under a common ecosystem, though each function remains separately licensed and supervised.

Tax policy has also shifted in a more financial-market direction. In July 2025, the Ministry of Finance and Directorate General of Taxes announced PMK 50/2025, PMK 53/2025, and PMK 54/2025, effective 1 August 2025. The tax authorities explained that crypto assets had moved from commodity status to digital financial asset status under the P2SK Law and were now treated as assets equivalent to securities, meaning that crypto asset transfers were no longer subject to VAT. However, income from crypto asset transactions remains subject to final Article 22 income tax, with rates of 0.21% for transactions through domestic electronic trading system operators and 1% for transactions through foreign operators. This reform reduces one source of domestic cost friction, although offshore leakage will remain a live issue while unlicensed platforms offer lower explicit fees or broader markets.

2. Regulatory Framework and Market Infrastructure

Indonesia’s current framework on digital financial asset industry is anchored by OJK Regulation No. 27 of 2024 on the Organization of Digital Financial Asset Trade Including Crypto Assets (“POJK 27/2024”), amended by OJK Regulation No. 23 of 2025 (“POJK 23/2025”), with OJK Circular Letter No. 20 of 2024 (“SEOJK 20/2024”) and OJK Circular Letter No. 34 of 2025 (“SEOJK 34/2025”) providing implementation detail on notifications, asset-list evaluations, fit-and-proper processes, business plans and reporting obligations. OJK stated that POJK 23/2025 was introduced because digital financial assets had developed as investment instruments and because new products resembling conventional financial instruments, including digital financial asset derivatives, required stronger scope and role definition for market operators.

Additionally, OJK Regulation No. 3 of 2024 on Organization of Technology Innovation in Financial Services, which regulates the broader financial sector technology innovation framework, also includes digital financial services within its regulatory scope. This means that innovation in digital financial asset activities can be routed through OJK’s regulatory sandbox process where appropriate.

The abovementioned regulatory framework deliberately separates the digital financial asset market into layers. There are three back-end layers (consisting of the exchange, clearing and settlement guarantee institution, and custodians) and a single retail-facing layer (the digital financial asset traders).

The exchange provides the trading platform, supervises trading, maintains the list of tradeable digital financial assets and may take action to secure transactions or prevent manipulation. The exchange must be a limited liability company established by at least 11 unaffiliated limited liability company shareholders (with the majority of such companies having engaged in digital financial asset activities for at least 3 years), and it must have paid-up capital of at least Rp1 trillion. Shareholding is dispersed: each shareholder is generally capped at 20%, while a company with foreign shareholding is capped at 10%, with aggregate foreign-owned company shareholding limited to 40%.

The clearing and settlement guarantee institution is the second layer. It provides settlement guarantee and clearing infrastructure and must have paid-up capital of at least Rp500 billion. Its system must be accurate, secure, online, real-time, and compatible with the systems of the exchange, custodian, and traders. Foreign-linked ownership is also constrained, with each foreign-shareholding company limited to 10% and aggregate foreign-linked shareholding limited to 40%.

The custodian layer (wallet providers) is intended to make digital asset safekeeping independent from trading activity. A custodian must maintain layered security infrastructure, segregated storage for each trader, records that support audit by OJK, the exchange, and the clearing institution, and risk mitigation mechanisms to ensure asset safety. The custodian is also responsible for any loss of digital financial assets it stores.

The retail-facing layer is the digital financial asset trader. Traders are the entities through which consumers buy, sell, exchange, store and transfer digital financial assets. They must have paid-up capital of at least Rp100 billion and must maintain organisational, technology, legal, complaint-handling, client support and finance functions. Their permitted activities include exchange between digital financial assets and rupiah, exchange among digital financial assets, storage of consumer assets and transfers between wallets; they may also facilitate digital financial asset derivative transactions on an approved exchange under the amended rules.

OJK has complemented this licensing structure with a public whitelist. In December 2025, it released a list of licensed or acknowledged traders and prospective traders, urging the public to transact only through listed entities and warning that unlisted platforms are unlicensed and outside OJK supervision.

3. Trading Mechanics Practices

Indonesia does not adopt a purely open digital financial asset listing model. The exchange determines the list of digital financial assets that may be traded, and operators are prohibited from trading assets outside the exchange list. SEOJK 20/2024 requires periodic evaluation of the digital financial asset list and reporting of evaluation results to OJK, while traders must notify OJK before commencing or ceasing trading in a particular crypto asset. This creates a curated market, with the exchange performing a quasi-gatekeeping role and OJK retaining a regulatory backstop.

Customer onboarding is similarly controlled. POJK 27/2024 allows both individuals and legal entities to become trader customers, but legal entities must be domiciled in Indonesia and may trade only for investment purposes, not as a means of payment settlement or fund transfer. Traders must have an online customer onboarding system which can guarantee the confidentiality of customer data. Traders may open only one account per customer after identification, KYC process, and verification. The identity verification process must use regulatory technology, including facial recognition with liveness features integrated with biometric data. Traders must also be connected to population administration data maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Strict rules are also applicable to the customer onboarding process itself. Customers are required to fill their data by themselves. Traders are not allowed to fill in the customer onboarding process and must provide information to prospective customers regarding the risk of price fluctuations, system failure, as well as other risks which entails crypto asset trading. OJK has the authority to audit each trader’s onboarding system.

4. AML/CFT and Consumer Protection Governance

OJK’s framework places AML/CFT/CPF compliance at the centre of market legitimacy. Traders must apply AML, counter-terrorism financing and counter-proliferation financing programmes, and digital asset transfers are subject to travel rule obligations. POJK 27/2024 requires traders, for transfers equal to or exceeding the rupiah equivalent of USD1,000, to obtain and transmit specified originator and beneficiary information (travel rule). Before accepting asset placement from a consumer wallet or third party wallets, traders must conduct due diligence on such wallets to confirm wallet identity and not sourced from money laundering/terrorism activities. This brings Indonesian crypto transfer practice closer to the expectations applied to other supervised financial channels.

Consumer protection operates on several levels. At the trading layer, traders must keep accurate records of consumer digital financial assets, ensure that customer orders are executed in real time according to customer instructions, provide slippage alerts for significant price movements, and segregate consumer assets from trader assets. At the market-conduct layer, the broader consumer protection framework requires financial services providers to observe principles of adequate financial literacy education, transparency, fair treatment, responsible business conduct, asset, privacy and data protection, effective complaint handling, compliance enforcement and fair competition.

Personal data protection is becoming increasingly important. Traders collect specific personal data, biometric, wallet, and transaction data. The digital financial asset industry players must adhere to the Indonesian Personal Data Protection Law and the more specific rules applicable under OJK Regulation No. 23 of 2023 on Consumer Protection in the Financial Services Sector (“OJK Consumer Protection Law”). Digital financial asset industry players must define lawful bases for processing, limit use of personal data to specified purposes, protect personal data security, manage processors and vendors, and be ready for breach response. Specifically, under the OJK Consumer Protection Law, the exchange of customer personal data can only be conducted based on consent. In the digital asset context, personal data governance is inseparable from AML compliance, because the same infrastructure that verifies identity and monitors suspicious transfers must also preserve privacy and prevent data misuse.

OJK has already shown willingness to enforce. In April 2026, it imposed administrative sanctions on two digital financial asset operators: one written warning and one temporary suspension of part of business activity.

5. Development and Outlook

The next phase is likely to move beyond secondary-market trading. OJK is preparing a draft regulation on digital financial asset offerings, including tokenised assets, backed crypto assets and unbacked crypto assets. If adopted, this would be a major step: Indonesia would begin regulating not only where digital financial assets trade, but how they are originated, disclosed and distributed—completing the regulatory lifecycle from issuance through trading to custody. The commercial opportunity is evident: tokenised real-world assets may broaden access to investment products, while Rupiah-linked or asset-backed tokens could improve settlement and treasury use cases.

Separately, Bank Indonesia is also pursuing a digital currency initiative through Project Garuda. Bank Indonesia completed a proof of concept for the wholesale Digital Rupiah cash ledger in December 2024, testing distributed ledger technology platforms for issuance, redemption, and transfer functions. The Digital Rupiah can only be issued by Bank Indonesia. It will complement rather than replace existing rupiah and is expressly distinguished from crypto assets or stablecoins. Bank Indonesia has outlined two forms: a wholesale Digital Rupiah for interbank transactions and monetary operations, and a retail Digital Rupiah accessible to the general public for everyday transactions. The Digital Rupiah forms part of Bank Indonesia’s 2030 Blueprint for Indonesia’s Payment System.

The likely Indonesian trajectory is therefore dual track. OJK will regulate private digital financial assets, tokenised instruments, crypto derivatives and market intermediaries. Bank Indonesia will continue to explore sovereign digital money and settlement infrastructure. The policy challenge will be interoperability without confusion: private assets may innovate, but monetary sovereignty remains centralised.

On the technology layer, Indonesia does not yet have a standalone blockchain regulatory framework. However, Government Regulation No. 28 of 2025 on Risk-Based Business Licensing has formally recognised blockchain technology development as a classified business activity, enabling blockchain businesses to obtain a Business Identification Number (Nomor Induk Berusaha) and Standard Certificate as formal legal requirements. This recognition, alongside the use of distributed ledger technology as a foundational criterion for tradeable digital financial assets under POJK 27/2024, signals the government’s commitment to providing a legal foundation for blockchain innovation beyond the digital financial asset context.

6. Key Takeaways

Indonesia’s digital financial asset market has entered a new phase. The Bappebti era created a commodity-style trading base; the OJK era is turning that base into a financial-market architecture. The model is capital-intensive and institution-heavy, but it provides a clearer foundation for consumer protection, AML discipline, tax collection and institutional confidence.

The principal commercial challenge is no longer whether Indonesia can license a crypto market. It is whether the licensed market can compete with offshore platforms on cost, liquidity, product range and execution quality. The entry of ICEx and tax reform and derivative growth all point to a more competitive domestic phase.

The medium-term opportunity lies in regulated product expansion. If OJK’s offering framework, tokenisation policy and stablecoin-related rules are calibrated well, Indonesia could evolve from a retail crypto trading market into a broader digital financial asset hub.

The essential condition is balance: enough supervisory structure to sustain trust, enough market flexibility to keep liquidity at home.