Forget retail crypto traders—Indonesia is quietly building an $88 billion “real-world assets” empire

When people discuss the crypto market, images of retail-driven speculative frenzies and wild price swings often come to mind. Yet Indonesia is quietly charting a radically different course—one driven by national strategy and focused on tangible, stable cash-flow generating “real-world assets” (RWA). According to an industry report spearheaded by key market players like BRI Ventures, this Southeast Asian giant's RWA market is projected to reach a staggering $88 billion by 2030.

1. The Real Regulatory Focus Isn't Cryptocurrency, But “Real-World Assets” (RWA)

Indonesia is undergoing a landmark regulatory shift. Starting January 2025, oversight of digital assets will formally transition from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) to the Financial Services Authority (OJK). This marks a watershed moment: the legal status of digital assets will evolve from simple commodities to strictly regulated financial products.

For institutional investors, this shift carries implications far beyond the text itself. It promises enhanced investor protections, clear custody and issuance rules, and oversight by a regulator (OJK) they already know and trust from traditional finance. This regulatory certainty is the most crucial catalyst for clearing barriers and instilling confidence for conservative institutional capital to enter the market.

More crucially, the OJK's draft Digital Financial Asset Issuance Regulation (AKD) explicitly defines and establishes a legal framework for “Tokenized Assets,” precisely targeting:

• • Commodities

• • Accounts receivable

• • Revenue Rights

This legal clarity formally paves the way for tokenizing Indonesia's vast industrial and infrastructure assets. This is no longer a discussion about the next hot cryptocurrency; it lays a solid legal foundation for building a massive, institutional-grade RWA market, fundamentally reshaping the entire market's rules of engagement.

2. The Government Isn't Cracking Down; State Giants Are Leading the Charge

Contrary to many markets' cautious stance on crypto, Indonesia's state-owned conglomerates are actively spearheading blockchain adoption. At the heart of this transformation is an initiative called “Tokenize Indonesia,” a structured platform designed for large institutions to explore real-world blockchain use cases.

The participants in this program are not a random assortment but strategic selections forming the three pillars of Indonesia's RWA ecosystem: finance, physical asset custody, and logistics. They include Bank BRI (PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia), Pegadaian (the National Pawnshop), and PosDigi (the digital arm of the National Post Office). The scale of these institutions is staggering:

• • Combined market capitalization: Over $35 billion

• • Assets under management: Over $138 billion

• • Served users: Over 65 million

• • Physical branches: Over 20,000

This represents a coordinated, top-down national strategy to legitimize blockchain technology by embedding it within the country's core economic infrastructure. BRI serves as the gateway to financial inclusion, Pegadaian acts as the national custodian for physical assets like gold—making it a natural participant in commodity-backed tokens—while PosDigi forms the backbone of national logistics. This signals a market shift from retail-driven to institution-led.

Markus Liman Rahardja, Chief Investment Officer of BRI Ventures, underscores this strategic objective:

“Our goal is to forge meaningful collaborations between established financial institutions and innovative, rapidly evolving technology partners. By bridging these two worlds, we aim to catalyze sustainable growth, advance financial inclusion, and accelerate the adoption of digital assets across Indonesia.”

3. Forget Silicon Valley garages; think coal terminals and transport highways

When discussing RWAs, Indonesia's focus isn't on typical tech company equity but the hard core of its economy—industrial infrastructure. Analysis indicates that for key resource companies like PT Bayan Resources Tbk and PT Bumi Resources Minerals Tbk, the most valuable RWA opportunities lie precisely in their infrastructure and proven reserves.

Take PT Bayan Resources Tbk (BYAN), one of Indonesia's top five coal producers, as an example. Its balance sheet lists over $1.2 billion in “property, plant, and equipment,” quantifying the sheer scale of its physical assets. Its most valuable RWA isn't the volatile coal itself, but the critical strategic assets it controls:

• • Balikpapan Coal Terminal

• • 101-kilometer dedicated coal haulage road

The operational cash flows generated by this infrastructure—such as usage fees and transportation charges—remain relatively insulated from coal price volatility. Regardless of market fluctuations, these assets generate stable income as long as coal is transported. This makes their tokenized products risk-profile-wise closer to bonds than speculative commodities, highly attractive to traditional institutional investors seeking stable returns.

Additionally, other high-potential assets have been identified, such as the high-value mineral reserves (gold and copper) owned by **PT Bumi Resources Minerals Tbk (BRMS)** and the high-credit-rated project receivables from EPC contractors like Wajen International. These demonstrate the vast potential of Indonesia's RWA market.

4. “Velvet Rope” in Place: Foreign Players Must Partner Locally

The Indonesian market is not entirely open; OJK's new regulations impose clear strategic market access controls on foreign entities. The OJK draft regulation stipulates that all market participants, including issuers, must be locally registered limited liability companies (Perusahaan Terbatas or “PT”).

The most impactful requirement is that issuers must maintain a board of directors with a majority of Indonesian nationals, and their key management personnel must reside locally in Indonesia.

The strategic significance of this rule is profound: foreign issuers cannot simply enter the market directly. They must participate by establishing a local entity or forming deep partnerships with entities that meet these stringent local ownership and management requirements. This is a core, non-negotiable principle that any international company seeking to enter Indonesia's digital asset market must understand.

5. The Regulatory Sandbox is Coming (A Major Opportunity)

With regulatory authority formally transferring in January 2025, the OJK is paving the way for establishing a formal “regulatory sandbox.” This will provide innovators with a space to pilot new models and products under regulatory oversight.

From this perspective, the “Tokenize Indonesia” initiative can be viewed as a “pre-sandbox,” granting participating large state-owned institutions and their technology partners valuable first-mover advantages in a soon-to-be redefined digital asset landscape. This effectively creates a tiered market where state-backed incumbents and their partners will hold significant lead-time advantages in shaping market standards and capturing initial transaction flows before the official sandbox launches.

As highlighted in an analysis by Indonesia's prominent law firm ABNR, the old era has ended, and future success demands entirely new capabilities:

“For market participants, the message is clear: the era of unregulated cryptocurrency issuance is over. Achieving success in Indonesia's digital asset market requires not only technological innovation but also exceptional legal and operational capabilities.”

In summary, Indonesia is moving beyond speculative cryptocurrency trading to systematically build a regulated, institutional-grade real-world asset market driven by its largest and most mature institutions. Through a clear legal framework, state-owned enterprise leadership, and a focus on core infrastructure assets, Indonesia is laying the groundwork for the next phase of digital finance.

As traditional finance and blockchain continue to converge, could Indonesia's state-led, infrastructure-first model become a blueprint for other emerging economies?