Binance Invests in Major Indonesia Crypto Exchange Tokocrypto

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 not been disclosed, the funding will ostensibly be used to diversify new products and services on the platform and make technological improvements, as well as to pursue nationwide expansion and roll out blockchain education initiatives across the region.

Ahead of Binance’s investment, Singapore-based digital asset trading and investment firm QCP Capital had already backed Tokocrypto.

Several cryptocurrency experts, among them Joshua Ho and Darius Sit of QCP Capital and Shaun Djie from Digix, sit on the advisory board for the exchange.

Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda, Tokocrypto’s chief operating officer, has said the exchange plans to continue its cooperation with Bappebti and PPTAK, Indonesia’s financial intelligence agency, as well as to forge partnerships with actors in other industries.

Binance’s global expansion strategy

As reported, Binance launched support for peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trades using Indonesian rupiah and for Indian rupees in April.

That same month, it announced its acquisition of crypto data site CoinMarketCap, one of the industry’s most high-profile platforms.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has previously told reporters that the company prioritizes working with domestic exchanges “that have existing banking relationships, which enable them to accept trading in local fiat currencies.” 

In India, Binance had acquired well-known Indian crypto exchange, WazirX in fall 2019.

To date, the exchange’s consistent expansion of fiat gateways means that Binance now supports crypto purchases with credit cards in over 50 jurisdictions.