Indonesia is considering developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as one way to counter the use of cryptocurrency in the country.
Assistant governor of Bank Indonesia Juda Agung told Bloomberg:
“A CBDC would be one of the tools to fight crypto, We assume that people would find CBDC more credible than crypto. CBDC would be part of an effort to address the use of crypto in financial transactions.”
The central bank’s attention to crypto assets could add to the difficulty of millions of Indonesians who invest in them. The Indonesia National Ulema Council has already declared cryptocurrency as haram or banned. The council carries the authority on Shariah compliance in Indonesia.
According to the Indonesian trade ministry, “the government is pushing forward with plans to set up a dedicated crypto exchange as soon as this year. As many as 7.4 million Indonesians invested in crypto assets as of July, doubling from last year, while transaction value surged to 478.5 trillion rupiah ($33 billion).”