Jakarta. Anggito Abimanyu, chairman of the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS), said Wednesday that cryptocurrencies would fall into the “non-halal” category due to the lack of a ruling that clearly states it complies with Islamic transaction principles.

Cryptocurrencies are booming in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. The Financial Services Authority (OJK) reported that Indonesia had 19.56 million crypto asset trading consumers as of Nov. 2025, up 2.5% month-to-month.

Cryptoasset transactions amounted to around Rp 482.23 trillion or $28.8 billion in value throughout 2025. Amid the rising popularity, cryptocurrencies had yet to secure a sharia fatwa issued by the recognized religious authority, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI). Islamic law mandates sharia-compliant transactions to be tied to a tangible underlying asset. The term halal means permissible according to Islamic teachings.

“Crypto has not had any Sharia fatwa to this day. It has not complied with Sharia terms because it does not have an underlying [asset],” Anggito told the Investor Daily Roundtable in Jakarta. 

“Cryptocurrencies are just about money circulating and turned into bitcoins. That’s why crypto is in the non-halal category.”

But at the end of the day, the decision to embrace crypto or not — despite knowing the fact — rests in the person’s hands.

“It’s your responsibility,” he said.

In 2021, MUI labeled the use of crypto as a currency as haram (non-permissible) due to its uncertain and dharar (harmful) nature. The council finds that cryptos as a digital asset cannot be traded, even likening it to gambling, which is a definite no-no for Muslims. Cryptos also fail to meet the requirement as a valid commodity (sil’ah) as it does not exist in physical form. But the council admitted that it could give its greenlight to crypto as an asset only if it meets the valid commodity principles, has an underlying asset, and comes with clear benefits.

Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data showed at least 207 million Indonesians identified as Muslims, making up 87.2% of the total population.

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