TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) plans to issue a regulation on the use of investments using virtual currency Bitcoins.
OJK director for capital market supervision Hoesen said they will regulate Bitcoin investments. The OJK agrees with the Finance Ministry and Bank Indonesia (BI) that Bitcoin investment has a high risk, and Hoesen also said that using Bitcoins to invest is considered illegal because there are no related rules yet. It also has the potential for becoming investment scams, because there is no license for it.
BI has banned the use of Bitcoin for financial transactions. The central bank governor Agus Martowardojo even reminded Bitcoin users to assume their own transactional risk by using the digital currency.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati expressed fears of inflation due to the use of the crypto currency, and urged the OJK to act immediately upon discovering parties who invest using Bitcoins.
Bitcoin is a virtual currency that has jumped in value by up to 15 times this year. Reported from bitcoin.co.id site, the value of 1 Bitcoin is currently equivalent to Rp249.8 million. They claim to have 716,852 members as per Tuesday, December 12.
Sometime ago, Communications and Informatics Minister Rudiantara expressed his support over BI's policies on Bitcoin use in Indonesia, including the blocking of websites selling Bitcoins.
BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI | JENNY WIRAHADI
