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The Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) announced that around 72% of the country’s licensed cryptocurrency trading platforms would remain unprofitable by the end of 2025, despite the number of cryptocurrency users exceeding 20 million.
These numbers highlight a structural challenge: a hugely growing user base that increasingly favors foreign platforms, leaving domestic platforms struggling to compete.
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Cost and liquidity gap in Indonesia
Based on data FSA Reported by local media, the total value of cryptocurrency transactions fell to IDR 482.23 trillion (~$30 billion) in 2025, from IDR 650 trillion in 2024. OJK attributed this to Indonesian investors increasingly turning to trading through regional and global platforms rather than local trading platforms.
The CEO of Indodax, William Sutanto, noted that this exit comes as a result of traders looking for more competitive conditions abroad.
Sutanto said that the number of cryptocurrency users in Indonesia is already large, but the value of local transactions is not ideal because a large part of the activity is in the head of the global ecosystem. The market will always look for places that offer more efficient execution and competitive costs.
He noted an uneven playing field: Domestic exchanges carry tax and regulatory compliance burdens, while foreign exchanges serving Indonesian users do not. Indonesian investors access foreign platforms via a VPN, with deposits processed through local banks.
Sutanto drew attention to the fact that foreign platforms do not carry the same tax and regulatory compliance burdens as local players, but remain available to Indonesian investors.
Cryptocurrency users in Indonesia have given BeInCrypto many reasons to prefer foreign exchanges: lower costs, speed of withdrawals and continued security concerns after the IndoDax 2024 hack. One user said that local exchanges require a lot of documents for withdrawals above $1,000, while with P2P solutions on global platforms, the process takes less than a minute.
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Structural stress
Indonesia’s cryptocurrency market underwent a major regulatory change on January 10, 2025, when Move supervision From the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) to the OJK. The regulator has taken steps to dismantle the previous single platform structure by issuing new licenses. However, with 29 licensed trading platforms competing for a limited local market, profitability pressures have increased.
The matter has been aggravated by the direct entry of global players into the market. She stated Robin Hood In December, it announced plans to acquire Indonesian brokerage PT Buana Capital Sekuritas and licensed cryptocurrency trading company PT Pedagang Aset Kripto.
Bybit also announced a strategic partnership with local exchange NOBI to launch Bybit Indonesia, while Binance already operates in Indonesia through its subsidiary Tokocrypto. The influx of deep-pocketed global competitors is increasing pressure on local platforms already struggling with razor-thin profit margins.
The presence of unlicensed platforms has also tightened the market, with tax losses in Indonesia estimated at between $70-110 million per year.
Trust concerns towards Indonesian trading platforms
The challenges arise as the Indodax itself does the scrutiny. OJK is currently investigating reports of the disappearance of approximately IDR 600,000,000 of customer funds. EndoDax attributed the losses to external factors such as phishing and social engineering rather than system hacks, and this highlights the trust issues that local exchanges must overcome to retain users.
Sutanto called for consistent enforcement against illicit foreign platforms with efforts to build a healthier domestic ecosystem, and added that cooperation between regulators and sector players is key.
