Indonesia’s GoTo acquires local crypto exchange Kripto Maksima Koin for $8.4m

GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GoTo), the biggest tech firm in Indonesia, is acquiring local crypto exchange Crypto Maksima Coin for about $8.4 million, GoTo said in a statement.

The move further diversifies GoTo’s services to now include crypto exchange.

According to a Reuters report, GoTo acquired 100% of PT Kripto’s shares for 124.84 billion rupiah ($8.38 million). The company told Reuters the purchase was part of its plan to turn itself into “a diverse money management hub.”

“We believe that blockchain technology may play a mainstream role in the future of finance and although no plans are imminent, from time to time we incubate or invest in new technologies to ensure we are able to embrace and pivot towards it when the time is right, in line with prevailing regulations,” GoTo said.

PT Kripto Maksima Koin is among the 25 crypto exchanges in the country that have been granted licences by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, or Bappebti. Indonesia does not recognise cryptocurrency as a payment instrument but only as a trading commodity.

The acquisition comes as more than 600 crypto or blockchain companies are now headquartered in Southeast Asia, according to a report by venture investment firm White Star Capital.

To date, there has been $3.3bn worth of VC investment into the region’s digital assets companies. A lot of these investments were fairly recent, with more than $2.5bn occurring in the last 18 months, the report pointed out.

GoTo earlier integrated its GoFood Delivery service into the Tokopedia e-commerce platform.

With the integration of GoFood, Tokopedia customers will be able to order from their favorite food and beverage merchants seamlessly, while GoFood merchants will also gain access to Tokopedia’s growing customer base, providing them with more diverse earning opportunities and additional advertising potential.

The GoTo ecosystem consists of on-demand services (mobility, food delivery, and logistics), e-commerce (third party marketplaces + official stores, instant commerce, interactive commerce, and rural commerce), and financial technology (payments, financial services, and technology solutions for merchants) through the Gojek, Tokopedia, and GoTo Financial platforms.