GoTo has paid 8.38 million euros for 100% of the shares of Indonesian crypto exchange PT Kripto Maksima Koin.
Two unicorns buy cryptocurrency
Last year Indonesian unicorns GoJek and Tokopedia merged and from this GoTo was born. Many a tourist knows GoJek for its scooter and car rides and the ability to order groceries, food and massages. Tokopedia is an online buying platform like Amazon or Bol.
At the time of the merger, these two companies were the two most valuable start-ups in Indonesia. Collectively, they accounted for 2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
According to the quarterly report of Q1 2022, GoTo has about 2.5 million registered drivers and 14 million registered merchants. The company claims to have over 100 million monthly active users.
Diversity through crypto
News of the acquisition comes from Reuters. ‘We believe blockchain technology can play a regular role in the future of finance,’ says GoTo. Unfortunately, they have not hinted at anything about what their plans are for the newly acquired crypto exchange.
PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (known as GoTo) has thus 124.84 billion rupiah (8.38 million euros) paid to acquire all 55 thousand shares of Indonesian crypto exchange PT Kripto Maksima Koin.
The company said the deal is in line with its goal of becoming “a diverse hub for money management.”
GoPay gets almost all crypto exchange shares
Indeed, GoJek’s app already has a feature called GoPay, which allows you to pay in almost all stores. It is not surprising that GoTo is interested in cryptocurrency and may have plans to weave crypto into their service.
The majority or (99.98 percent)of PT Kripto Maksima Koin’s shares will be owned by GoTo’s subsidiary GoPay. In addition, GoTo itself will manage only 0.02 percent of PT Crypto Maksima Koin’s shares.
Crypto and bitcoin well represented in Indonesia
Despite the negative attitude of the country’s Indonesian central bank and some local Islamic organizations, cryptocurrency is incredibly popular in Indonesia. If you’ve been to Bali this summer, you’ll find a surprising number of crypto cafes. Last weekend also saw Coinfest Held at a beach club in Bali.
In Bali you will also find the co-working space T-Hub, where the author of this article can be found a lot.
In addition, there are several bitcoin meetups every week all over Indonesia. One of the organizers of the meetup in Ubud wrote an argument about why Indonesia needs Bitcoin. Her argument also mentions the role of the colonial Netherlands.
According to a survey by the U.S. Gemini Indonesia is the world leader in crypto adoption, sharing first place with Brazil.
Little competition crypto industry Indonesia
In Indonesia (population 275 million), there are three major crypto companies that call the shots: Indodax, TokoCrypto and to a lesser extent Pintu. In addition, the websites and apps of many international companies (such as Binance) are barred from the country. There is little competition so there is plenty of growth to be had in Indonesia.
As in the Netherlands, Indonesian cryptocurrency companies must obtain a license from the government. In addition to the three mentioned above, there are 22 other licensed crypto exchanges, including PT Kripto Maksima Koin.
Despite a limited supply of companies relative to the number of inhabitants, there is still considerable trading in Indonesia. Southeast Asia’s largest economy had a total cryptocurrency transaction volume of 859.4 trillion rupiah (57.5 billion euros). This is 1000% more than a year earlier.
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