JAKARTA – Bank Indonesia is taking a firm stance against crypto-currencies as it urges all parties to stay away from owning, selling and trading the tokens.
“Owning virtual currencies is very risky an inherently speculative,” said the central bank in a statement on Saturday. These digital tokens “are prone to forming asset bubbles and tend to be used as method for money laundering and terrorism funding, so it has the potential to affect financial system stability and harm the public.”
This move highlights challenges that are faced by regulators as they want to manage potential risks from the global crypto-currency mania while it does not have the authority to prohibit its use.
The statement by Bank Indonesia follows its earlier ban on financial technology companies using crypto-currencies for transactions in January, which does not block trading of the digital tokens itself.
While the authority reiterates an existing ban on the payment-system providers under its watch from processing transactions using digital currencies, virtual currency exchange that boasts more than 940 000 member, PT Bitcoin Indonesia, does not fall under the supervision of the authorities.
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