Indonesia gives green light to cryptocurrencies to be sold as financial assets
The Supervisory Board for Financial Futures (Bappebti), a commodity regulator under the Ministry of Commerce of the country, recently declared that cryptocurrencies are products that can be traded in the country's futures market.
A financial future is a derivative product, characterized by being an agreement in which two investors commit to buy or sell an asset in the future, setting the basic conditions of the operation, such as its price and quantity. Being a highly valued asset in the agricultural, livestock and raw materials markets.
The economy of the country located southwest of Asia and of about 255 million inhabitants, has lately fallen into a downward spiral of investor confidence in the stock markets caused by the slowdown in growth that has suffered since early 2018, which has led to the Central Bank of Indonesia to raise interest rates, seeking to encourage savers and stop the fall in the value of their currency (Rupiah).
Among the measures that the Central Bank and the executive have begun to take, it has been to relax a bit the regulations that the cryptocurrencies in the country had suffered. According to the report published by Jakarta Post on Monday, the head of market supervision of the board Dharma Yoga confirmed the news and mentioned that the ruling in favor came after a period of 4 months of analysis and study on the subject.
Yoga expressed in the statement :
"We have signed a decree which formalizes the decision, we hope it will clear the way for the launch of Bitcoin-based financial futures in Indonesia"
The Central Bank had suggested at the end of last year 2017 that Bitcoin payments in the country be prohibited and later that same year it would have declared that it did not recognize any cryptocurrency as a method of legal payment within the Indonesian territory.
Yoga affirmed that times are changing and it is pertinent that the Asian country does not miss this undeniable opportunity, because all over the world they are taking advantage of the potential that this new technology can bring.
He also indicated that, in order to prepare a comprehensive and efficient regulatory framework, the board is requesting local exchange of cryptocurrencies, in order to present regulatory proposals to the central government.