Indonesia's Financial Services Authority to Take Over Crypto Regulation in 2025

According to CoinDesk, Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) will take over regulation of the crypto industry from the commodities agency Bappebti in January 2025. Crypto firms will have to pass an evaluation in a sandbox environment by the new regulator before they are granted approval to operate in the country. Hasan Fawzi, the regulator's head of supervision for financial technology, digital financial assets, and crypto, said at a media briefing on Tuesday that this aligns with OJK's spirit, particularly in consumer protection and education. He added that they expect their regulatory mechanisms to directly impact the prevention of fraudulent investments. Firms that offer services in the country without being evaluated in the sandbox will be considered to be operating illegally. A regulatory sandbox serves as a testing and innovation development space to evaluate products and make sure they're safe and reliable. It provides an isolated environment to conduct trial runs that help enhance security and responsible management in the financial sector. The industry is currently supervised by the commodities and futures trading regulator, Bappebti, because crypto assets are classified as commodities. Once under OJK's oversight, crypto will most likely be reclassified as financial instruments. The regulatory sandbox also allows crypto businesses to get used to the regulations and supervision enforced by OJK, Hasan said, reiterating a stance from earlier this month.