Indonesia Watchdog Blocks Cryptocurrency Lending Platform

Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, known as OJK, has identified and blocked almost 300 illegal peer-to-peer lending platforms, which includes one cryptocurrency firm.

According to Nikkei, OJK’s investment alert unit joined hands with the IT ministry and local police to launch a crackdown against unlicensed FinTech platforms. The investigations found that most of the unregistered lending platforms had servers located in Indonesia, but a few of them were operating from outside the international borders. Nevertheless, OJK did not reveal the names of sacked entities, particularly the one that was facilitating cryptocurrency loaning between Indonesians.

“Once a fintech platform has been verified as illegal, we will directly block it. By blocking these illegal platforms, we hope to protect the consumers and the public,” said Anthonius Malau, acting director of informatics application control at the Indonesian IT ministry.

The Backdrop

The crackdown follows years of development…