All links are external & open in a new tab, except for "Read Review" buttons. Before jumping into this page, an important disclosure.
You'll need a Bitcoin wallet before you buy since some exchanges require one.
Don't have a wallet? Read our guide on the best Bitcoin wallets.
Coinmama Popular Buy Bitcoin Read Review
Coinmama allows customers in almost every country to buy bitcoin with a credit or debit card. They charge an ~6% fee on each purchase.
If buying less than $150 worth of bitcoins, you won't need to verify your identity. This convenience makes small purchases quick and easy.
Want to buy using Coinmama? This step-by-step guide will show you how to use Coinmama.
- Works in almost all countries
- Highest limits for buying bitcoins with a credit card
- Reliable and trusted broker
- Some of the highest fees among credit/debit card bitcoin brokers
LocalBitcoins Popular Buy Bitcoin Read Review
LocalBitcoins is an escrow service which also helps to match bitcoin buyers and sellers. The most common method of payment for purchase is cash deposit. However, users may advertise trades for whichever payment method they prefer.
Buying bitcoins via an in-person meeting, secured and facilitated by LocalBitcoins, may be one of the fastest and most private ways to buy bitcoins in any country.
- Can be private, fast and easy
- In-person trades require no personal information
- Purchases of bitcoin can be made quickly via cash deposit
- Beware of scams; always follow the rules!
- Harder to buy large amounts of bitcoins compared to large exchanges
- Slightly to significantly higher prices than regular exchanges; premium for higher privacy
Luno Popular Buy Bitcoin
Luno is a universal Bitcoin platform that provides secure exchanges where people can buy/sell Bitcoin. Luno offers a unique fee structure for traders in Indonesia. Makers are rewarded a +0.2% bonus on a trade, while takers are charged -0.2%. Hence, traders are incentivised to bring their orders to Luno.
- One of the most trusted Bitcoin exchanges in Asia
- Free deposits and low withdrawal fees
- Low fees; 0% for market makers and only 0% - 1% for market takers (depending on fiat currency)
- High to infinite limits for exchange, depending on verification level
- Users should not store bitcoins in Luno's wallet service
- Limited deposit options, usually only bank transfer, and no credit/debit card options
bitcoin.co.id Popular Buy Bitcoin
bitcoin.co.id is Indonesia's largest Bitcoin exchange. You can buy bitcoins using cash in Jakarta or Ubud, or online via bank transfer, Alfa network, Doku, Veritrans, or EasyPay.
- Good liquidity
- Many payment methods available for deposits
- Support is available 24/7
- Bank deposits are processed instantly
- Not private since ID verification is required
- Exchange can be hard to use for new Bitcoin users; it's geared towards traders
Bitcoin ATMs Buy Bitcoin
You can use our Bitcoin ATM map to buy bitcoins with cash. Bitcoin ATMs can be a quick and easy way to buy bitcoins and they're also private. That convenience and privacy, however, comes with a price; most ATMs have fees of 5-10%.
- Our map makes it super easy to find a Bitcoin ATM near you
- Bitcoin ATMs often have 5-10% fees per purchase
VirWoX Popular Buy Bitcoin Read Review
Technically, VirWoX isn't even a Bitcoin exchange. It mainly serves as a way for people to buy Second Life Lindens, a currency used in the virtual world Second Life. You can't buy Bitcoin with PayPal directly at VirWoX, but it's possible to first buy Second Life Lindens (SLL) and then trade your SLL for Bitcoin. This process works perfectly, but in the end will cost you about 10% in fees.
This workaround/hack has made VirWoX the easiest and most popular way to buy bitcoins with PayPal.
- The easiest and basically only way to purchase bitcoins with PayPal or Skrill
- Comes with a price: it will cost around 10% in fees to buy with PayPal
Mycelium Local Trader Buy Bitcoin
Mycelium Local Trader helps you find local Bitcoin sellers. Once you locate a seller, you meet up in-person and conduct the trade. Mycelium charges absolutely no fees. While Mycelium Local Trader works great in highly-populated areas, users in low population areas will have trouble finding sellers.
- Easy and cheap way to buy bitcoins with cash
- Private way to buy bitcoins, no personal information required beyond cellphone number
- Users in sparsely populated areas will have trouble finding sellers
Changelly Buy Bitcoin
Changelly lets you buy bitcoin with Litecoin, Dogecoin, altcoins and many other digital tokens. Changelly works in nearly every country but you will need another cryptocurrency in order to purchase bitcoins. Exchanges happen almost instantly because Changelly never actually controls your tokens but just exchanges them.
- Easiest and fastest way to buy bitcoins with altcoins
- Fees are reasonable for larger traders
- Need altcoins or other digital tokens to use
bitcoin-otc Buy Bitcoin
Bitcoin-OTC is an over-the-counter marketplace for the peer to peer exchanging of bitcoin. It is almost like a Craigslist for Bitcoin. Users must create ads or locate other ads to find sellers of bitcoin. Bitcoin-OTC is somewhat complicated and hard to use, but may be the only option for users in some countries without an exchange.
- Can be a good way to find Bitcoin sellers if no other options exist
- Need to keep eye out for scams
- Need to build trust and feedback for your account before trading larger amounts
History of Bitcoin in Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the world's 5 largest populations, at least 80% of it remains unbanked. It is not allowed for Indonesian people to pay for something within the country using any other currency other than Rupiah.
There are more than 250 million people in term of population with remittance market cap reaching around 7 billion US dollar a year, it is only right if we try to use Bitcoin to support remittance services and make it easier, faster and cheaper for people to transfer money from anywhere around the world to Indonesia or vice versa.
It appears that there are more traders than actual Bitcoin users. It is not allowed for Indonesian people to pay for something within the country using any other currency other than Rupiah—not US Dollar, not Yen, and definitely not Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin is not treated as a currency, it cannot be used to pay for something with Bitcoin in Indonesia; the government only allows Rupiah as a legal payment instrument in the country.
The organization has been set up as part of Bali's BitIslands initiative, which aims to turn the popular Indonesian tourist destination into a 'bitcoin paradise'. The company also accepts payments in Indonesia's national currency, the Rupiah.
Status of Bitcoin in Indonesia
Localbitcoin volume in Indonesia is relatively stable. The country saw volume highs of 350 million USD in November of 2016. According to coinatmradar.com , there are 3 ATMs throughout Indonesia, one in Bali, Jakarta, and Ubud.
Companies using Bitcoin
ArtaBit is a digital payment system that uses Bitcoin, it is regarded as one of the pioneers for Bitcoin in Indonesia. Any startup that is an ecommerce website, can integrate ArtaBit services to support bitcoin payments. In addition, the site also lets you purchase bitcoins with Indonesian Rupiah.
Bitcoin.co.id , aka Bitcoin Indonesia launched around the same time as ArtaBit, but is only a trading center. On the site’s homepage, you can see the latest bitcoin exchange rates, including the lowest and highest levels of the week, and where it currently sits. Each update comes in three-hour intervals. The site itself does not set the exchange rate, but instead just presents the exchange rates offered by sellers.
Established in mid-2014, BitDoku is one of the newer players on Indonesia’s cryptocurrency scene. Founder Tiyo Triyanto claims BitDoku is already better than the local competitors because it delivers bitcoin to the buyer in around three minutes flat.
BitDoku allows users send an SMS or WhatsApp messages to Triyanto and his team with the amount they want to purchase, their Bitcoin wallet address, and personal email address. Minutes after users make their payments, they are notified of the bitcoin’s arrival.
This startup’s Bitcoin service is still in the development stage. Similar to Bitcoin.co.id and BitDoku, Bestbit also sells bitcoin for Indonesian rupiah. However, before users can purchase bitcoins, they are required to make a real-money deposit in advance. Currently, BestBit charges nothing for users to buy and sell bitcoins to each other. Instead, it plans to take a one percent fee each time users withdraw cash from their Bestbit account.
Merchants Accepting Bitcoin
Bitcoin merchants keep appearing in Indonesia and there are also a lot of our members that use Bitcoin to pay for Internet and electricity bills, top up their cellphones balance, book a plane ticket, etc. Nearly every merchant in Indonesia that accepts payments in Bitcoin, automatically converts the Bitcoins they receive into Rupiah and send the money into their bank account. This way, Bitcoin pretty much works like credit card and thus, does not violate the rules from government.
The BitIslands project, launched in May 2014. It’s goal is to persuade all local businesses to accept bitcoin . It’s sponsored by Bitcoin.co.id, Indonesia’s largest bitcoin exchange and lobby group .
Ipaymu.com helps webshops and online merchants accept credit card and alternative payments over the internet, it’s platform has PayPal integrated.
Legality of Bitcoin
On February 6, 2014, Bank of Indonesia issued a statement on bitcoin and other virtual currencies. It stated that these are not considered to be currency or legal payment instruments in Indonesia, and warned the public that the user/owner of bitcoin bears all risks related to their ownership/use. Please Release, Bank Indonesia, Statement of Bank Indonesia Related to Bitcoin and Other Virtual Currency (Feb. 6, 2014).
Other than giving an official statement about how they see Bitcoin, which you can see here, the Indonesian government hasn’t made any important moves to restrict or facilitate bitcoin transactions in Indonesia. With no clear regulation, we’re operating as a marketplace that obeys the usual regulation regarding financial transactions in Indonesia which is collecting their ID, asking their sources of funds and the purpose of their transactions. We do this to comply with the KYC in order to prevent money laundering happening within the country using Bitcoin.
