The Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (Bappebti) announced via an official press release that it has established a legal framework for the cryptocurrency and digital assets futures markets this Monday.
Operating under Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade, the regulator has stated that cryptocurrency futures exchanges wanting to operate in Indonesia, must be registered and approved before they can commence operations.
The Regulation announced today, follows on from reports released back in June of last year that cryptocurrency futures trading is legal in Indonesia. Today, Bappebti confirmed that cryptocurrency assets are now officially recognized as commodities and therefore, can be traded on Indonesia’s futures exchange.
According to Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana, the chief of the agency, said in today’s statement that the regulations had been put in place to both protect consumers and investors, as well as provide legal certainty to the crypto futures sector.
The new regulatory framework announced today is comprised of numerous major rules for operators in the crypto futures space. This includes regulation which focuses on the technical side of placing crypto futures contracts on exchanges, to the adoption of Cryptocurrencies as a tradable commodity.
Registration Qualifications as Outlined by Bappebti
The framework also imposes a number of restrictions. In a document which outlines the full rules and registration requirements, for futures exchanges and clearing houses alike that offer crypto futures trading, they need to pay at least 1.5 trillion IDR (Indonesian rupiahs), which converts to around $106 million. In addition, they need to maintain a closing capital balance of a minimum of 1.2 trillion IDR ($85 million).
Not only this, but in order to be approved, applicants must have a sound level of system security in addition to at least three employees who are Certified Information System Security Professionals (CISSP).
However, although cryptocurrency futures are legal within Indonesia, the regulator clarified that the new regulation does not apply to initial coin offerings (ICOs), which is still reportedly barred in the country.
