“There are many local tokens that can be utilized, which can be used as an entry point to boost digital exports," he explained at the Blackarrow Conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
Through the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti), the Trade Ministry will encourage crypto players to develop local digital commodity products in various ways.
One of the strategies will be to formulate conducive regulations to capitalize on digital products, such as cryptocurrencies, Sambuaga informed.
"Our domestic crypto players must be able to develop many crypto products. We have entered the era of digitalization, where everything is digital," he said.
In 2019, administrative records of the transaction value of crypto assets were few, he noted.
After policies regulating cryptocurrencies were introduced, the value of crypto transactions reached Rp64.9 trillion in December 2020 and increased significantly to Rp859.4 trillion in December 2021.
The registered accounts in crypto transactions also experienced a sharp increase: from 2.2 million in 2020 to 14.4 million in May 2022.
"We must be able to regulate the policies and all things related to crypto. We establish the association, we approach the players, and we regulate the policies," Sambuaga said.
He then emphasized that crypto is a commodity and therefore, it is better to call it a crypto asset, not cryptocurrency.
"If someone here says cryptocurrency, that is not right because the only legal means of payment is the Indonesian rupiah, even the US dollar cannot be used as a means of payment in here. Therefore, the regulation is under the Ministry of Trade, not in other institutions because the Ministry of Trade is the institution that regulates commodity matters," the minister said.
The Blackarrow Conference is a high-level professional business conference targeted at management levels in a number of industry sectors.
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Translator: M Baqir I A, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
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