Allaire flags Jakarta’s crypto edge

Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said Jakarta is “one of the most important cities” in the internet financial system after a recent visit, pointing to heavy local use of crypto and stablecoins. (x.com) In that post, Allaire named Indodax, Tokocrypto, DANA Wallet and Pintu as examples of the platforms he saw operating in Indonesia’s capital. Indodax says it has more than 8.5 million members in Indonesia, while Tokocrypto and Pintu market themselves as local crypto trading platforms and DANA as a digital wallet. (x.com) (indodax.com) (tokocrypto.com) (pintu.co.id) (dana.id) Indonesia’s crypto market has been expanding fast. The country’s commodities regulator said crypto asset transactions reached 556.53 trillion rupiah across January through November 2024, up 356.16 percent from 122 trillion rupiah a year earlier. (bappebti.go.id) The regulatory map also changed in Jakarta in early 2025. On January 10, 2025, Indonesia transferred oversight of digital financial assets, including crypto, from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency to the Financial Services Authority, known as Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, and Bank Indonesia. (ojk.go.id) That shift put crypto closer to the country’s mainstream financial rulebook. Otoritas Jasa Keuangan’s Regulation No. 27 of 2024 took effect on January 10, 2025, setting the framework for digital financial asset and crypto trading under the new supervisor. (ojk.go.id) Otoritas Jasa Keuangan has since published a whitelist of licensed and registered digital financial asset and crypto operators and told the public to use only listed apps, websites and official channels. The agency said platforms outside the whitelist are not licensed and are not under its supervision. (ojk.go.id) Jakarta sits inside a broader Southeast Asia adoption wave. Chainalysis said Asia-Pacific remained a hub of grassroots crypto activity in its 2025 global adoption index, with Indonesia ranked in the top 20 worldwide. (chainalysis.com) The local user base also skews young. Data cited by Cointelegraph from Indonesia’s regulator showed more than 60 percent of the country’s crypto investors were between 18 and 30 years old in late 2024. (cointelegraph.com) Allaire’s comments also fit Circle’s broader push to make stablecoins look less like a trading tool and more like internet-native cash for payments and settlement. Circle says USDC is backed by liquid fiat reserves and has been promoting bank and cross-border payment partnerships around that model. (circle.com 1) (circle.com 2) For Jakarta, the message from Allaire’s visit was straightforward: the city is no longer just a local crypto market in Circle’s telling, but part of the plumbing for how money moves online. (x.com)