Indonesia’s digital asset market is expanding quickly. Retail participation keeps rising, transaction volumes continue to grow, and regulation is clearer under OJK (Financial Services Authority) Regulation No. 27/2024, which took effect in January 2025. At a glance, the country appears ready for a more balanced and mature ecosystem. Yet one piece remains far behind: institutional investors are barely participating, even as the market gains momentum.
The Financial Services Authority reports 19.2 million registered crypto users, making Indonesia one of the world’s largest retail-driven digital asset markets. But institutional activity paints a very different picture.
Speaking on the sidelines of the OECD Asia Roundtable on Digital Finance in Bali,
Hasan Fawzi, Chief Executive Supervisor for Digital Financial Assets at the OJK, spelled out the gap clearly, “Institutional orders have not even reached one thousand, we are still talking in the hundreds.”
He noted that institutions do participate domestic and foreign and their ticket sizes are usually larger. But compared to the nearly 20 million retail users, the institutional footprint is minimal.
“From 19.2 million crypto consumers registered on domestic exchanges, only a small portion are institutions,” Hasan said, adding that institutional interest exists but active involvement remains limited.
Even so, Hasan emphasized that hundreds of companies are now exploring crypto as an investment instrument.
“More non-individual institutions are starting to incorporate digital financial assets, including crypto, into their portfolios,” he said, pointing to clearer rules, formal legal recognition, and established taxation as catalysts for growing institutional attention.
Read more: Indonesia’s Role in Global DeFi & Stablecoin Adoption Trends in 2025
Retail Growth Continues, While Institutions Wait for Maturity
While institutions are cautious, retail participation continues to push Indonesia’s digital asset market forward. Transaction value reached Rp409.56 trillion through October 2025 — a sign of how quickly adoption has grown among everyday users. Public awareness is rising, exchanges are easier to access, and regulation is no longer ambiguous. For retail investors, the ecosystem feels increasingly accessible and straightforward.
Institutions, however, operate under a different calculus. Clear rules are necessary but not sufficient. What they look for is predictability consistent standards, stable operational processes, and risk controls that can withstand scrutiny from boards, auditors, and compliance teams. Elements like standardized reporting, audit-ready custody, and mature due diligence processes are still evolving. In a global environment marked by volatility, waiting becomes the safer choice.
The result is an unusual dynamic: robust retail growth on one side, and a cautious, slow-moving institutional segment on the other.
Read more: 5 Reasons Indonesia Is Growing Fast in Crypto Adoption
A Retail-Driven Market and a Wide-Open Institutional Opportunity
This imbalance creates a rare opening. Indonesia’s digital asset market is active, growing, and supported by regulation — but the institutional layer is still thin. Rather than a limitation, this presents a clear opportunity for companies willing to build ahead of demand.
Because institutions have not yet entered at scale, the pathway to shape institutional participation is still open. Exchanges, custodians, fintech platforms, and infrastructure builders have room to define the standards, architecture, and workflows that institutions will eventually rely on. Markets that reach institutional maturity earlier tend to be harder to penetrate. Indonesia, at this moment, is the opposite: the institutional foundation is almost untouched.
This is where ICN can play an important role. As more companies begin exploring Indonesia’s digital asset landscape, they need clarity, not just on regulation, but on market behavior, category fit, and practical opportunities.
ICN’s access to local insights, market intelligence, and ecosystem relationships helps institutions and corporates understand whether Indonesia aligns with their strategic goals and how to approach the market responsibly.
If your organization is considering Indonesia or exploring the digital asset opportunity here, the best starting point is ICN’s Market Assessment, a structured, data-driven evaluation of your product’s potential, demand signals, and strategic pathways in Indonesia’s evolving digital asset economy.
