Cryptocurrency may soon be considered a commodity on Indonesia’s Stock Exchange

Indonesia's Ministry of Trade’s Future Exchange Supervisory Board (BAPPEBTI) has reportedly decided that cryptocurrencies are commodities that are going to be used for trade on the country’s stock exchange.

“The BAPPEBTI head has signed a decree to make cryptocurrency a commodity that could be traded at the bourse,” said head of BAPPEBTI market supervision and development bureau, Dharma Yoga, on Sunday.

According to Dharma, the decree has been signed after conducting detailed and practical studies for four months into this matter. The study concluded that cryptocurrencies can be used and deserved to be considered as commodities.

Meanwhile, the government will issue supporting regulations that will enable them to manage taxation as well as prevent money laundering, currency exchange companies and terrorism financing.

Dharma Yoga stated that these regulations will cover number of institutions like Bank Indonesia, the Taxation Directorate General, the Financial Services Authority, the National Police’s Densus 88 counter-terrorism squad and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

The central bank, Bank Indonesia, had confirmed last year that it will not allow bitcoin payments in the country, and added that it did not recognise any of the cryptocurrencies as a legal mode of payment, However, it did not specify any of the crypto exchanges at that time of announcement.

BAPPEBTI has called upon crypto bourses like Indodax and Crypto Community to present a product specification and trading process, which will go in line with the government-issued regulations.

The product specification will include information about types of currencies and tick size of the trading instrument, whereas the process will talk about trading hours and dispute settlement mechanism.

Dharma confirmed that they have called bourses to present proposals for cryptocurrencies to have a better know-how for future trading purposes.