11% of Indonesians Now Own Bitcoin or Another Cryptocurrency

A report, compiled by Hootsuite, We Are Social and Kepios, cites data from GlobalWebIndex. The report states that 11% of people in Indonesia own some form of cryptocurrency, making it the sixth country for cryptocurrency adoption. According to the report, it lags behind the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, and Nigeria. In the Philippines, 17% of the population owns some form of cryptocurrency. On social media, users have pointed to the devaluation of the Indonesian currency as a potential cause for such high cryptocurrency adoption.

According to Investing.com, the country’s inflation rate reached 82% in 1998, although it decreased significantly since then. In recent decades it has averaged 6.3%. Statistical data that does not yet include cryptocurrencies shows that 50.8% of the country’s Indonesian millennials also invest in gold. The precious metal has seen its price rise above 3% in the last 24 hours as the coronavirus pandemic affects the economy.

Responding to the report on social media, a user claiming to be from Indonesia revealed that he believes the figures regarding cryptocurrency ownership may have been overstated. Since they may be counting the 2017 bullfight that saw Bitcoin hit a new record of close to $20,000. The user revealed that the country’s main cryptocurrency exchange is presumably Indodax. He held an airdrop the moment users created fake accounts with it to earn more of the funds given away.

It may be impossible to determine if the figure is accurate or not. In the cryptocurrency space, a user is not linked to a cryptocurrency address. Since security experts even advised users to create a new address per transaction to remain anonymous, blockchain data shows that in total there are over 600 million unique BTC addresses.

The Indonesian government likewise is by all accounts readily making its ways for crypto. Prior this month, the nation’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency gave administrative leeway to Zipmex – a crypto trade concentrated on the Asia-Pacific locale.

Get the latest in Asian Bitcoin news here at Coin News Asia.