Kinesis, a gold-backed monetary system based in the Cayman Islands, has launched a Sharia-compliant version of its product in Indonesia, setting the stage for wider acceptance of its solution in the world’s largest Muslim-population country. The product, PosGO Syariah, is described as the first mobile ecosystem business in Indonesia to be compliant with Islamic law. Delivered as a mobile application, PosGO is a digitized physical gold trading platform that also allows users to conduct real-time, peer-to-peer transfers of gold and fiat currency. The platform also offers a payment gateway and a “Gold Mecca” community savings program for the Hajj, the …

Research from Microsoft reveals that Indonesia had the highest malware encounter rate across the Asia Pacific region in 2019. They conclude that this indicates a surge in cryptojacking and ransomware attacks. The report shows that the region continues to experience a “higher-than-average” encounter rate for ransomware and other malware attacks, posting figures 1.6 and 1.7 times higher than the rest of the world, respectively. Ransomware and cryptojacking attacks on the rise in Indonesia Indonesia had a 10.68% malware attack rate during 2019. While this does represent a 39% decrease, the figures remain two times higher than the regional average, Microsoft …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto have listed a rupiah-backed stablecoin, Binance IDR (BIDR). According to an announcement on June 30, Binance and Tokocrypto users can now trade BIDR against Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Ether (ETH). Users will also be able to directly purchase and redeem the stablecoin at a rate of 1 Indonesian rupiah each ($0.000070). A part of Binance’s expansion plans BIDR is pegged to Indonesia’s fiat currency and runs on Binance Chain. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claims that this is the first stablecoin pegged to this fiat currency …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is cementing its presence in Indonesia, announcing an investment in a major domestic regulated exchange Tokocrypto on May 12. In 2019, Tokocrypto reportedly became the first Indonesia crypto exchange to seal regulatory approval from the country’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, also known as Bappebti. Registration with the agency has been mandatory as of February 2020 for any platform seeking to legally offer cryptocurrency trading services. To secure approval, service providers must be able to prove they have risk control management, security and transaction systems in place. While the sum of Binance’s investment in Tokocrypto has …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is deepening its presence in two major emerging markets, India and Indonesia. In an announcement published on April 14, the exchange revealed that users are now able to trade cryptocurrencies peer-to-peer (P2P) for Indian Rupees (INR) and Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). Both fiat currencies will be available against Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) Binance Coin (BNB) and Binance Dollar (BUSD) via the platform’s site and mobile app. Laying the foundations Well ahead of the recent improvements in India’s crypto regulatory climate, Binance had already begun to pave the way towards extending its services to the country’s …

Huobi’s charity arm has announced an initiative to distribute aid to assist Indonesia’s fight against COVID-19. Huobi Charity will distribute aid in partnership with the Indonesia-China Association of Economic, Social and Cultural Cooperation (ICAESCC) to make monetary contributions, donate medical supplies, and leverage blockchain technology to assist healthcare organizations. Huobi launches coronavirus charity initiative in Indonesia To provide immediate relief, Huobi Charity will donate roughly $50,000 in Huobi Token (HT) to ICAESCC for the purchase of medical supplies for hospitals. Ciara Sun, Huobi Group’s vice president of global business, emphasized that the coronavirus pandemic is impacting “everyone in every corner …

Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, also known as Bappebti, has given the green light to crypto exchange provider Zipmex. The approval is the latest in Zipmex’s series of applications to regulators in the Asia-Pacific region, where it has already secured a go-ahead from Thai and Australian authorities. Regulated operations across Asia-Pacific Speaking to Cointelegraph on March 10, Zipmex’s chief legal officer Bank Yimwilai explained the exchange’s approach to navigating different regulatory regimes across the region: “Even though each jurisdiction has its own sets of rules and regulations, they are rooted in core principles of good corporate governance, strong custody …

IBM Indonesia has revealed that the Indonesian Directorate General of Customs and Excise has commenced using the blockchain-based shipping platform, TradeLens. The news follows several months of platform implementations, with the Indonesia Customs and Excise Department announcing that it would join the TradeLens consortium late last year. The announcement has seen Indonesia’s customs department become the 11th government agency to join the TradeLens consortium - of which other members include the customs authorities of Thailand, Azerbaijan, and Canada, among others. Tan Wijaya, the president director of IMB Indonesia, expressed his expectation that the partnership with Indonesia’s customs depart will “benefit …

Last week, a report claimed that cryptocurrency-based illegal gambling has surged in many parts of Asia owing to the rise of this novel asset class in recent years. In this regard, the article further added that over the course of the last five years or so, betting amounts have become substantially larger, partly because of traditional payment methods being replaced by cryptocurrencies. From a more technical standpoint, a research study released by Transparency International, a nongovernment organization based in Berlin, Asia’s illicit gambling market was found to be worth a staggering $400 billion in 2018. This is in part because …

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is launching a fiat gateway in Indonesia to enable fiat-to-crypto trading between the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) and Tether (USDT). In a Dec. 27 press release, the Huobi Group announced that the launch of the new fiat-currency gateway will make it possible for Indonesian investors to utilize the IDR to trade more than 250 cryptocurrencies available on its Indonesian subsidiary, Huobi Indonesia. Senior director of Huobi Cloud David Chen commented: "The new fiat gateway is part of Huobi's global expansion strategy and reflects our ongoing commitment to working with strong local partners in key markets across the globe …

The United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore have the largest number of registered digital currency exchanges, according to data from Bitfury’s blockchain analytics platform Crystal. Crystal published its “Report on International Bitcoin Flows 2013–2019” on Sept. 9, in which it provides insight into cryptocurrency operations and Bitcoin (BTC) transactions around the world between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 30, 2019. U.K. and U.S. lead the rating The findings show that the largest number of registered crypto exchanges are in the U.K., the U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore. Countries such as Argentina, India, Mexico, Russia and Indonesia report …

Facebook-owned messaging service, WhatsApp, is purportedly in preliminary talks with multiple digital payments firms as well as a state-owned bank to launch digital payment services in Indonesia. Reuters reported that they had learned of this development from anonymous sources on Aug. 20. According to the report, WhatsApp is currently negotiating with transportation booking service Go-Jek, mobile payments provider DANA, fintech startup OVO and state-owned Bank Mandiri. Bank Mindri operates a digital wallet service, per the report. WhatsApp’s plan for Indonesia is to support payments through digital wallets in the region, according to Reuters’ sources. The report further speculates that Facebook’s …