Bank Indonesia crypto: What’s Really Happening with Crypto in Indonesia

When Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia that controls monetary policy and regulates financial institutions. Also known as BI, it banned crypto as a payment method in 2019, it didn’t stop people from using it. The ban wasn’t about owning Bitcoin or Ethereum—it was about preventing banks from processing crypto transactions. That loophole let exchanges like Bittime, a crypto exchange focused on Southeast Asia with high staking yields but weak security grow quietly, especially in Jakarta and Bali. Today, Indonesians trade crypto not to buy coffee, but to send money home, hedge against inflation, or chase airdrops—despite the legal gray zone.

While Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia that controls monetary policy and regulates financial institutions keeps insisting crypto isn’t legal tender, enforcement is patchy. You won’t get arrested for holding Bitcoin, but if your bank account gets flagged for USDT transfers, it could be frozen overnight—just like in Myanmar, a country that bans crypto trading and punishes users with account closures and jail time. The difference? In Indonesia, the ban is enforced through banks, not police. People still use P2P apps like Paxful and LocalBitcoins. Traders log into Bittime for staking yields that beat local savings accounts. And when the rupiah drops, crypto becomes a silent safety net.

What’s missing from the official story? The scale. Indonesia has one of the highest crypto adoption rates in Asia—over 15% of adults own some form of digital asset. But you won’t see that in Bank Indonesia’s reports. Instead, you’ll find warnings about scams, volatility, and money laundering. And yes, those are real risks. But so is losing savings to a crumbling currency. The posts below dig into exactly how Indonesians navigate this: from the risks of using unregulated exchanges like Bittime, to how crypto penalties in neighboring countries like Myanmar show what could happen if enforcement tightens. You’ll also see how the same forces that kill projects in Myanmar keep crypto alive in Indonesia—not because it’s legal, but because it’s useful.