Adaptive Regulation and Quality Innovation Could Make Indonesia's Crypto Ecosystem More Competitive
Indonesia is building a new foundation for its crypto asset ecosystem, prioritising stronger regulation, continued adoption growth, and increasingly broad institutional involvement.
With 2.69 million crypto users as of June 2026, the industry’s focus is no longer just on expanding the market, but on ensuring that innovation, consumer protection, and institutional readiness can progress in tandem.
At Coinfest Asia 2026, which brought together government, regulators, and local and global industry players, discussions highlighted the importance of maintaining a balance between regulatory certainty and room for the ecosystem to continue developing. This balance is essential to keep industry growth healthy and sustainable.
Indodax Co-Founder Oscar Darmawan believes compliance remains important for industry development, particularly to open greater space for institutional participation. However, consumer protection needs to go hand in hand with the ability of domestic players to continue delivering relevant products and services.
Oscar highlighted that product and service factors also influence users’ decisions to choose offshore platforms. “Compliance remains necessary because it is one of the foundations for institutions to enter this industry. However, at the same time, innovation also needs to continue. If domestic products and services continue to develop, users will have more reasons to remain within a regulated ecosystem and obtain better protection,” Oscar said, quoted from his statement on Saturday, 22 August 2026.
Oscar also views the OJK regulatory sandbox as an important space for testing new innovations before they are applied more broadly, so that industry development continues to consider consumer protection as a top priority.
“Innovation in the crypto industry is moving very fast. With a regulatory sandbox, innovations can be tested and evaluated first before being applied more broadly. This approach can help Indonesia’s crypto ecosystem develop in a more orderly manner while providing room for accelerating innovation,” he added.
Deputy Minister for Investment and Downstreaming, Todotua Pasaribu, believes blockchain and digital assets, including crypto, are increasingly relevant to support national investment needs. He also sees Bali as having the potential to develop from a tourism destination into a centre for investment, technology, and innovation, including for the fintech, Web3, digital asset, and crypto communities.