The cryptocurrency market in Indonesia is going through an unprecedented paradox. According to the latest report by the Financial Services Authority (OJK), around 72% of licensed exchanges in the country ended the year 2025 with a loss. The figure is even more striking when compared to mass adoption: the number of crypto users in Indonesia has in fact surpassed the 20 million mark.
The liquidity gap and the flight abroad
The OJK data highlights a deep structural challenge. The total value of crypto transactions fell to IDR 482.23 trillion (around USD 30 billion) in 2025, marking a sharp decline from the 650 trillion recorded in 2024. According to the regulator, this decline does not indicate a disinterest in digital assets, but rather a massive migration of investors to regional and global platforms.
William Sutanto, CEO of Indodax, explained that this outflow is caused by competitive inequality. Domestic platforms face tax burdens and compliance costs that foreign giants often avoid. Many Indonesian investors continue to access global platforms via VPN, using local banks for deposits, attracted by lower fees and higher operational speed.
The number of crypto users in Indonesia is already high, but the value of domestic transactions is not optimal as much of the activity flows into the global ecosystem. The market will always look for places that offer more efficient execution and competitive costs," said Sutanto.
Regulatory pressure and global competition
The regulatory landscape took a turn on 10 January 2025, when oversight of the industry shifted from the Bappebti agency directly to the OJK. This shift led to market fragmentation: Indonesia now has as many as 29 licensed exchanges competing for an ever shrinking slice of the domestic market, squeezing profit margins.
Complicating the situation is the direct entry of large international players. In December, Robinhood announced the acquisition of brokerage firm PT Buana Capital Sekuritas and licensed trader PT Pedagang Aset Kripto. At the same time, Bybit partnered with local platform NOBI to launch 'Bybit Indonesia', while Binance consolidated its presence through its subsidiary Tokocrypto.
In addition to legal competition, unlicensed platforms continue to drain resources, with an estimated loss to the Indonesian exchequer of between USD 70 million and USD 110 million in annual tax revenues.
The user trust crisis
In addition to costs, it is the trust factor that weighs on local exchanges. Withdrawal restrictions are a critical point: 'Local exchanges require too much documentation for withdrawals over $1,000. With P2P on global platforms, it takes less than sixty seconds,' one user told BeInCrypto.
Security concerns also weigh heavily, exacerbated by the hacker attack suffered by Indodax in 2024. Currently, the OJK is investigating reports of some IDR 600 million in missing customer funds. Although Indodax attributes the losses to external phenomena such as phishing and social engineering, the incident has undermined the domestic industry's reputation.
Sutanto has appealed for stricter enforcement against illegal foreign platforms, emphasising that only close collaboration between regulators and the industry can save Indonesia's crypto ecosystem.
