OJK Says 72 Percent of Indonesian Crypto Exchanges Are Still Losing, Here's the Problem

JAKARTA - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has recorded that around 72 percent of Digital Financial Asset Traders (PAKD) in Indonesia are still experiencing losses until the end of 2025. This condition occurs amid the increasing number of users of crypto assets, but accompanied by a decline in national transaction values. OJK data shows that the value of crypto asset transactions throughout 2025 was recorded at Rp482.23 trillion, down from Rp650 trillion in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of crypto users in Indonesia has exceeded 20 million accounts.

OJK said that this condition is influenced by the still dominant domestic investor transactions through exchanges and crypto asset traders at the regional and global levels, so that transaction activities in the domestic ecosystem have not been optimally formed.

Responding to this, INDODAX CEO William Sutanto assessed that the flow of transactions abroad occurred because some market participants pursued trading conditions that were considered more competitive, ranging from greater liquidity to transaction cost efficiency.

"The number of crypto users in Indonesia is already large, but the value of domestic transactions is not yet optimal because many activities are still flowing into the global ecosystem. This shows that the market will look for a place with more efficient execution and more competitive costs," said William, Wednesday, January 28.

William added that pressure on the performance of domestic industry players was also influenced by an unbalanced market structure. With the relatively limited size of the domestic market, the number of licensed exchanges is still considered quite large compared to the available transaction volume.

"This makes the competition for liquidity tight, while compliance and operational costs must still be borne by each exchange," he said.

In addition, the difference in treatment of costs between domestic and foreign exchanges also affects competitiveness. Domestic exchanges must bear the burden of taxes and exchange costs, while foreign platforms have no similar obligations to the Indonesian market.

"Foreign exchanges do not have the same tax and compliance burdens as domestic players, but they can still be accessed by Indonesian investors using VPN, especially considering that the deposit process of foreign exchanges can be easily done through domestic banking, which then creates its own challenges for the domestic crypto industry," said William.

According to research by the LPEM FEB UI, the existence of illegal platforms has the potential to cause a loss of state tax revenue of up to IDR 1.1 trillion to IDR 1.7 trillion per year. In response to this, William assessed that consistent supervision and action against the illegal activities of foreign crypto platforms are important factors in building the domestic crypto industry.

"Enforcement against illegal platforms needs to go hand in hand with efforts to build a structured ecosystem, so that licensed business actors and consumers are in a healthy ecosystem. I also appreciate OJK for formulating regulations and consistent supervision in protecting consumers and organizing the national crypto asset industry. In the future, collaboration between regulators and industry players is the key to jointly building a larger, healthier, and competitive Indonesian crypto industry," said William.