Regulation Watch · Business Licensing · Indonesia. The law applies nationally across banking, capital markets, insurance, crypto assets, other digital financial assets, financial-sector technology innovation, strategic mineral and commodity exchanges, unlicensed financial activity and related market infrastructure. It directly affects licensed or licensing-stage PT PMA and PT PMDN financial businesses, directors, controllers and shareholders. An ordinary investor or company that only uses a bank, insurer, broker, payment provider or crypto platform is generally affected as a customer rather than as a regulated operator.
Indonesia Expands OJK Control over Crypto and Financial Markets
Law 4/2026 expands OJK licensing and enforcement across crypto, digital finance, securities and strategic-commodity markets, with immediate operating duties and transition dates extending into 2027 and 2028.
- Published
- Established and promulgated on 17 June 2026 in State Gazette 2026 No. 62, Supplement No. 7180. The official Ministry of Finance and DPR JDIH records publish the signed 206-page amendment to Law 4/2023.
- Effective
- 17 June 2026, the date of promulgation stated in Article II point 10. Specific transition provisions delay the mineral and strategic-commodity exchange framework until 1 January 2027, require specified crypto and digital-finance exchange functions by 17 June 2027, and phase in the insurance policy guarantee program no later than January 2028.
- Added to Watch
- 18 October 2026
Who is affected
Foreign and domestic investors, OJK-regulated PT PMA and PT PMDN companies, banks and sharia banks, insurers, securities and capital-market businesses, crypto traders, crypto exchanges, clearing and settlement institutions, central crypto custodians, other digital-financial-asset providers, fintech and ITSK operators, strategic mineral and commodity market participants, directors, commissioners, controlling shareholders, key parties, compliance teams, Indonesian customers of offshore financial platforms and prospective investors in market infrastructure.
Practical impact
Crypto and other digital-financial-asset businesses are expressly classified as financial-service institutions and must hold the OJK licence matching each activity. Crypto trading, including wallet activity, must be transacted through and/or reported to an OJK-licensed crypto exchange. The law requires customer-fund segregation, account and transaction confidentiality, fit-and-proper oversight of key parties, consumer-loss responsibility and controls against misleading statements, artificial pricing, market manipulation and unlawful insider dealing. A crypto exchange must have at least 11 founding limited-liability companies, a majority of which are licensed traders with at least three years of OJK licensing history, and each shareholder or connected shareholder group is capped at 20 percent. OJK may block non-compliant crypto activity offered from Indonesia or abroad to Indonesian persons or entities. For the securities exchange, the law permits demutualisation but limits shareholders to Indonesian persons or legal entities; POJK 13/2026 generally caps each holder at 5 percent unless OJK approves more and prohibits majority ownership.
Indonesia established and promulgated Law 4/2026 on 17 June as an immediate amendment to the 2023 Financial Sector Development and Strengthening Law. The amendment is broader than an institutional clean-up. It expands OJK authority, rewrites the legal foundation for crypto and other digital financial assets, enables securities-exchange demutualisation, creates the strategic mineral and commodity exchange framework, strengthens insurance resolution and creates a wider enforcement route for unlicensed or abusive financial activity.
Crypto operators now sit expressly inside the financial-services perimeter. Traders, exchanges, clearing and settlement institutions, central custodians and any other category designated by OJK must hold the appropriate OJK licence. The explanatory text also brings tokenisation, initial digital-asset offerings, OJK-approved stablecoin transactions, staking, crypto lending, crypto pledges, spot activity and derivatives within the digital-finance scope. Stablecoins may not be used directly as a means of payment, even where OJK permits a transaction use.
The market-structure rules are operational. Crypto activity, including covered wallet activity, must be transacted through and/or reported to a licensed exchange. Clearing institutions must support a single customer identity and separate accounts for customer funds. The exchange must have at least 11 PT founders, most of them qualifying licensed crypto traders, and no shareholder or connected group may exceed 20 percent. Existing authorised providers are recognised, but the relevant exchanges must operate the required matching function by 17 June 2027.
The law also increases personal and corporate exposure. A crypto or digital-financial-asset institution is responsible for consumer loss caused by the unlawful act, error or omission of its controller, shareholder, management, staff or representative. Key parties can be personally responsible for unlawful conduct that causes institutional loss. Misleading disclosures, false markets, artificial prices and unlawful use or disclosure of inside information are prohibited, while OJK may freeze or block a non-compliant service offered domestically or from abroad to Indonesian users.
For the securities exchange, Law 4/2026 separates ownership from exchange membership and permits ownership by Indonesian individuals and Indonesian legal entities, including non-members. POJK 13/2026 implements that change. It generally limits a shareholder to 5 percent, requires OJK approval above that level, prohibits direct or indirect majority ownership and preserves OJK fit-and-proper oversight. This is not a general opening for foreign ownership of the securities exchange.
Other transition dates should be tracked separately from immediate compliance. OJK assumes the strategic mineral and commodity exchange framework on 1 January 2027 under POJK 15/2026 and POJK 16/2026. The financial-sector task force must be formed by 17 June 2027, the policy guarantee program must operate no later than January 2028, and specified insurance-resolution powers begin on 1 January 2030. The law also mandates a separate statute for an Indonesian International Financial Centre with potential special tax treatment, but that mandate does not itself create an operational licence or incentive claim for a private business.
Required action
- Map every crypto, tokenisation, stablecoin, staking, lending, pledge, custody, clearing, settlement, wallet, exchange and other digital-financial-asset activity to the required OJK licence and the responsible Indonesian entity.
- Reconcile existing Bappebti or OJK approvals with the statutory recognition rules, current OJK licence records, shareholder and controller approvals, fit-and-proper status and the actual products and services offered.
- Confirm that all crypto activity, including qualifying wallet activity, is transacted through and/or reported to the licensed exchange and that customer funds are held in separate accounts through the required clearing and settlement structure.
- Review the crypto exchange ownership structure against the minimum 11-founder rule, the majority licensed-trader condition, the three-year licensing history and the 20-percent direct and connected ownership cap.
- Update customer agreements, confidentiality controls, third-party oversight, complaints, loss-allocation rules, disclosures, marketing review, insider-information controls and surveillance for false markets, misleading statements and artificial pricing.
- Foreign or offshore platforms serving Indonesian users should assess whether their activity requires an Indonesian OJK licence and restrict non-compliant access before OJK uses its statutory freezing or blocking power.
- An existing crypto or other digital-financial-asset exchange should document its plan to operate a genuine multilateral matching function by 17 June 2027 and align that plan with the applicable OJK implementing regulations.
- Prospective securities-exchange investors should apply the Indonesian-person or Indonesian-legal-entity ownership restriction and POJK 13/2026 limits before structuring any investment or control arrangement.
- Banks, insurers, capital-market institutions and other OJK-regulated groups should complete a provision-by-provision gap review covering expanded business activities, governance, consumer protection, resolution, reporting, enforcement and group-level responsibility.