Indonesia Wants Citizens to Steer Local Crypto Exchanges: Report

Regulators are tightening rules in the wake of a global search for Terra co-founder Do Kwon.

Sep 21, 2022 at 12:48 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 21, 2022 at 2:15 p.m. UTC

CDCROP: Jakarta, Indonesia (Shutterstock) — Jakarta, Indonesia (Shutterstock)

Amitoj Singh is CoinDesk's regulatory reporter covering India. He holds BTC and ETH below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.

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Regulators in Indonesia are introducing a new rule requiring domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to be mostly led by its citizens, according to a Bloomberg report.

The rule would require at least two-thirds of directors and commissioners on crypto trading platforms to be Indonesians residing in the country, officials from the country's trade ministry and commodity futures trading regulatory agency said at a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta.
“That way, at least we can stop them from fleeing the country if any problem arises,” Didid Noordiatmoko, the agency’s acting head , said, according to the report.
Noordiatmoko didn’t say when the revised regulation would be issued, but said revisions will be made to Indonesia's existing guidelines for operating crypto exchanges.
The regulator's comments follow an effort by South Korea to hunt down Terra co-founder Do Kwon. The country had issued an arrest warrant for Kwon on charges of fraud, four months after Kwon's $40 billion Terra network collapsed.
Additional revisions to the rules in Indonesia include gradually doubling the minimum capital requirement for crypto exchanges to 100 billion rupiah ($6.7 million) in line with their growth, banning exchanges from reinvesting crypto assets and storing users' money in third-party bank accounts, according to Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga.

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