Indonesia’s Commodities Regulator Bappebti Endorses Crypto Exchange Zipmex

Bappebti, regulator of Indonesia’s commodity futures trading, has approved Zipmex, a cryptocurrency trading platform provider.

Notably, Zipmex has received approval from regulators of several countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Thai and Australian authorities.

Yimwilai, chief legal officer of Zipmex, detailed how the exchange intends to comply with various regulations 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 solutions and comprehensive KYC/AML [Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering] policies.”

In spite of “nuances and small differences,” the regulators in the Asia-Pacific region more or less follow similar rules, as per Yimwilai.

Even if there are any deviations, Yimwilai believes that it could be used to improve overall compliance criteria:

“Operating across multiple regions has allowed us to adopt the best practice from each particular region. For example, we adopt AML policies that satisfies AUSTRAC, the Australian regulator that regulates money laundering. In addition, SEC Thailand requires institutional-grade custody solutions of digital assets, which we then use in all of the markets that we operate in.”

All cryptocurrency exchanges, as of February 2020, functioning in Indonesia have to compulsorily enroll themselves with Bappebti to lawfully offer cryptocurrency trading facilities.

In order to get approval from the regulator, a firm should demonstrate that effective safety, risk handling protocols are in place, in addition to an efficient transaction platform.

Criteria to be met by cryptocurrency exchanges for registration with Bappebti are portion of a wider legislative framework for cryptocurrencies, which were categorized as tradable commodities last year.

In 2019, Zipmex started making inroads with its Indonesian platform by collaborating with the Indonesian interbank network ALTO to improve it banking and payment framework.

After facilitating more than $35 million worth Bitcoin (BTC) trades, Zipmex is concentrating on providing easy onboarding for Rupiah, Indonesia’s national currency.

Lim believes that support for crypto by onboarding Rupiah will pave way for financial inclusion in the country.

In addition to Rupiah, the cryptocurrency exchange backs fiat-to-crypto pairs based on the US, Singaporean and Australian dollars.

Zipmex has enrolled itself with Monetary Authority of Singapore to offer crypto related services in the country.

The company is also preparing itself to apply for a digital payment token license under the country’s Payment Services Act.

The cryptocurrency exchange is currently focused on Asia-Pacific region even though it is looking to expand worldwide in the future.

Zipmex aims to become a leader in the four markets it operates currently. Bitfury’s blockchain analytics platform Crystal has mentioned that Indonesia is one of those countries with very less presence of cryptocurrency exchanges, supporting Zipmex’ claim that it is the first to operate officially in Indonesia.

On the other hand, Singapore, along with the UK, Hong Kong and the US, tops the list of countries with numerous authorized providers of cryptocurrency trading platforms.