Why Does RWA Tokenization Matter for Indonesia?

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In October 2026, Adi Budiarso, who heads the supervision of financial sector technology innovation, digital financial assets, and crypto assets at Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK), said that university students would eventually be able to buy Indonesian government securities (Surat Berharga Negara, or SBN) with Rp10,000. Today, retail SBN purchases start at Rp1 million. The route he had in mind is tokenization. Statements like this sound promising, so it is fair to ask: does Indonesia actually need RWA tokenization, or is it just a trend that happens to be popular abroad?

RWA tokenization is the process of recording rights to real-world assets, such as SBN, gold, or property, as tokens on a blockchain. The process itself is covered in What Is Tokenization? How Real Assets Move Onchain, and the asset types in What Are Real-World Assets (RWA)? Types, Examples, and Risks. This article takes on the next question: which problems in Indonesia tokenization could help with, what evidence exists so far, and what the technology still cannot fix.

A snapshot of Indonesia’s financial markets

Investors are growing fast, but unevenly

As of 7 August 2026, Indonesia had around 30.3 million capital market investors, counted by Single Investor Identification numbers (SID). That is up around 49% from around 20.35 million at the end of 2025. Growth is fast, but the mix is lopsided. Data from the Indonesia Central Securities Depository (KSEI) as of December 2025 shows:

• Of around 20.35 million SIDs, 19.19 million belonged to mutual fund investors.
• Investors in stocks and other securities numbered around 8.60 million.
• SBN investors numbered only around 1.41 million.
• 68.58% of domestic investors were on the island of Java.

One investor can appear in more than one category, so these figures cannot be added up. Even so, the imbalance is clear: SBN, the debt securities issued by the state, are held by far fewer people than mutual funds.

Capital market understanding is still low

The 2025 National Financial Literacy and Inclusion Survey (SNLIK) placed the capital market near the bottom. Its literacy index was 17.78%, and its inclusion index only 1.34%. In other words, fewer than two in every 100 respondents used capital market products.

SNLIK 2026 covered far more ground: 75,000 respondents in 514 regencies and cities, compared with 10,800 respondents in 120 regencies and cities in the previous survey. It put the national financial literacy index at 69.57% and the inclusion index at 93.61%. The SNLIK 2026 press release does not include a capital market figure, so the latest public sector-level data is still from 2025. The two surveys tell a consistent story: most people already use financial services, but use of investment products such as stocks and bonds still lags far behind.

Small businesses still depend on bank loans

As of June 2026, total financing to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs, or UMKM in Indonesian) from all financial services sectors reached Rp1,948.72 trillion. The shares were:

• Banks: 82.44%
• Finance companies, venture capital, microfinance institutions, and similar lenders: 17.50%
• Capital market: 0.06%

On the bank side, MSME loans make up 16.73% of total bank lending, and OJK is targeting a share of 25-30%. A capital market route for MSME funding has barely formed.

Strong appetite for digital assets, but it flows abroad

As of August 2026, OJK recorded 23.21 million customer accounts at digital financial asset traders. That is a count of accounts, not people, since one person can hold accounts on several platforms. One Indonesian crypto platform, for example, already offers tokens of US company shares and gold tokens starting at Rp11,000.

So crypto investors in Indonesia can already buy tokenized assets. The catch is that much of what is available to them today is foreign assets priced in US dollars, while tokenization of domestic assets is still waiting for its offering rules.

Four reasons RWA tokenization fits Indonesia

The general benefits of tokenization, such as round-the-clock transfers and records anyone can check, are covered in the benefits section of the tokenization article. The four reasons below are more specific, because each one answers one of the problems above.

1. Smaller slices of assets people already trust

Think of shampoo sold in single-use sachets, a familiar sight in Indonesian shops. The shampoo is the same as in the bottle, but the small pack means far more people can buy it. Tokenization could do something similar for assets such as SBN and gold. The asset stays the same, but the unit you buy can be split much smaller.

Retail SBN is already fairly affordable. It can be bought online from Rp1 million, and in 2025 retail SBN sales reached Rp152.7 trillion from 431,832 investors. OJK’s remark about SBN from Rp10,000 points to the next step: lowering the minimum to a level a university student can afford. Demand for small slices also shows up in global markets. The IMF found that around 80% of tokenized stock trades are smaller than one share.

For gold, the tokenization model that passed OJK’s sandbox works with pawnshop companies (pergadaian) to store the physical gold behind the tokens. The securities tokenization model involves investment managers and custodian banks.

One point needs setting straight. Lowering the minimum investment does not actually require a blockchain. It can be done by changing the issuance terms. The IMF also notes that many of the benefits claimed for tokenization can be achieved through ordinary digitalization. What tokenization adds is something else: those small slices can be traded on a secondary market at any hour and combined with other assets on the same network. Whether a token can be traded at all still depends on its legal design. Some retail SBN series, such as SBR and ST, are designed not to be tradable in the first place.

2. A funding channel beyond bank loans

OJK sees RWA tokenization as a potentially efficient alternative source of funding that links the financial sector with the real economy. OJK has also described tokenization as a way to fund creative economy projects, including film and art. With the capital market providing only 0.06% of MSME financing, there is clearly room for a new channel.

The problem is that the evidence in Indonesia is still very thin. When OJK reported on the gold tokenization trial in its sandbox in August 2025, purchases totaled only 3,750 grams, with transactions worth around Rp8 billion. Tokenization does not remove default risk either. Funding a business through tokens still needs credit assessment, regular reporting, and investor protection, as discussed in the credit section of the RWA article.

3. More efficient issuance and settlement

Most of the available data so far comes from bonds. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) counts more than 60 tokenized bonds, worth US$8 billion in total, issued across various countries. Comparing a sample of them with conventional bonds from the same issuers, the BIS found:

• The bid-ask spread of tokenized bonds averaged around 19 basis points, against 30 basis points for conventional bonds.
• Issuance costs did not differ systematically.
• The minimum investment was lower on average, around US$110,000 versus US$185,000.

A European Central Bank (ECB) study published in April 2026 found that tokenized bonds were issued at a yield spread around 0.14 percentage points lower, but with no visible reduction in operational costs. For Indonesia, the relevance is scale. The government issues SBN regularly and in large volumes, and the IMF notes that in a market as large as government bonds, small efficiency gains per trade can add up to large benefits. Still, the samples in these studies are small and the market is young, so the results may not carry over to SBN.

4. Bringing domestic assets into the digital ecosystem

Indonesian crypto investors can already buy tokens of US company shares through local platforms. If domestic assets are not tokenized as well, the choices in the digital ecosystem will keep leaning toward foreign assets.

Tobias Adrian, the IMF’s Financial Counsellor, wrote on the IMF blog that for emerging economies, tokenized assets and money can move across borders almost instantly. The effects can include volatile capital flows, local currencies being replaced by foreign ones, and an erosion of monetary sovereignty. Tokens of domestic SBN, gold, or property valued in Rupiah give investors options that stay tied to the domestic economy.

Where Indonesia stands: the sandbox and the draft rules

As of August 2026, seven participants in OJK’s regulatory sandbox had graduated. Three of them are tokenization models: gold tokenization, securities tokenization under a fund management contract (kontrak pengelolaan dana, or KPD), and tokenization of property ownership benefits. Businesses with the same business model may register with OJK without going through the sandbox trial again.

Dedicated rules for offering tokenized assets are still being drafted as an OJK draft regulation (RPOJK). According to OJK, the rules will cover issuer eligibility, asset types, licensing, and supervision, and will require certainty that the physical asset exists before a token is issued. In early October 2026, OJK said the rules for real asset tokenization are expected to be finished by the end of 2026 or in early 2027. The regulatory layers, from Law Number 4 of 2026 to the OJK regulations already in force, are covered in the regulation section of the tokenization article.

Until those rules are issued, the rule of thumb is simple: only transact in digital financial assets through OJK-licensed providers, and check their status on OJK’s official website.

Tokenization in neighboring markets

Several markets in the region started testing tokenization earlier, each with a different approach.

Market	Initiative	Instrument	Distinctive feature	Status
Hong Kong	Tokenized government bonds (2023, 2024, 2025)	Government bonds	Issued directly by the government, then connected to existing clearing systems	About US$2.2 billion in total; some 2025 tranches could settle in e-HKD and e-CNY
Thailand	G-Token	Digital investment token for government funding	Aimed at retail investors	Announced in May 2025 with an initial issue of 5 billion baht
Singapore	Project Guardian (since May 2022)	Tokenization pilots across asset types	Pilots by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with banks and financial institutions	Running as an industry collaboration program
Malaysia	Discussion paper on asset tokenization (October 2025)	Not yet set	Central bank sought industry feedback first	Feedback period closed on 1 March 2026
Indonesia	Regulatory sandbox and RPOJK	Gold, securities, property benefits	Business models tested through OJK’s sandbox	Models have passed the sandbox; offering rules still being drafted

Thailand targets retail investors, Singapore started with pilots alongside financial institutions, and Hong Kong issues its own government bonds. Hong Kong’s experience is worth a closer look. The IMF notes that its first issuance in 2023 required investors or their custodians to join a dedicated platform, which created “islands” cut off from existing market infrastructure. Later issuances opened access through existing clearing systems and added more currencies. The IMF’s conclusion: tokenization delivers limited value when it stands alone without links to market infrastructure.

What tokenization cannot fix

The IMF’s October 2026 Global Financial Stability Report sets out several limits that are relevant to Indonesia.

• Many of the benefits claimed for tokenization can also be achieved through ordinary digitalization. Selling retail SBN online has already widened access without a blockchain.
• The market’s foundations still have to be built. For emerging markets, the IMF recommends continuing basic capital market reforms: a broad investor base, benchmark pricing, a liquid secondary market, and strong legal and supervisory safeguards. Tokenization infrastructure also needs large upfront investment, while the benefits only show up once transaction volumes are large.
• Small slices are not necessarily easy to sell. The tokenized stock markets studied by the IMF were less liquid and around 1.5 times more volatile than their traditional counterparts.
• Literacy does not rise on its own. SBN that can be bought from Rp10,000 widens access, but it does not automatically mean buyers understand the risks. OJK itself urges young people to understand the risks of crypto and tokenization before investing.
• A token with no asset behind it is worthless, and anyone can create a token called “gold” or “SBN”. How to check for this risk is covered in the risk section of the tokenization article.

What it takes for the benefits to show up

The IMF sums up four constraints that decide whether tokenization can grow in a healthy way. Each one maps onto Indonesia’s situation.

1. Legal certainty. Token holders need to know what rights they have over the underlying asset, including if the issuer goes bankrupt. In Indonesia, part of the answer will come from the RPOJK on tokenized asset offerings.
2. Regulatory clarity. The IMF recommends the principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulatory outcome,” with a technology-neutral approach. OJK says this RPOJK will also take a technology-neutral approach.
3. Interoperability. Tokens need to connect with existing market infrastructure, such as custodians and settlement systems, so they do not end up as separate islands, as in Hong Kong’s early experience.
4. Safe settlement assets. SBN or gold tokens need to be paid for with money that lives on the same network. The IMF recommends settling in safe and widely accepted forms of money.

The fourth point is where a Rupiah stablecoin such as IDRX could play a role. IDRX is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Rupiah and backed by fiat reserves and government securities. Its transparency and audit documents are available on the IDRX documents page. Its use remains subject to the rules in force. The Elucidation of the amended P2SK Law states that a stablecoin used as a means of transaction (alat transaksi) requires a recommendation from the exchange and OJK approval, and that such use is not treated as a means of payment (alat pembayaran). The role of Rupiah stablecoins in RWA tokenization, and its limits, will be covered in a separate article in this series.

Conclusion

RWA tokenization matters for Indonesia because the problems it could help with are real. Capital market investors are growing fast but are concentrated in mutual funds and on Java. Use of capital market products is still low, MSME funding through the capital market is close to zero, and much of the strong appetite for digital assets flows to foreign assets. Tokenization offers smaller slices, a new funding channel, more efficient issuance, and domestic options in the digital ecosystem.

All of this is still potential. The evidence in Indonesia is very thin, the offering rules have not been issued, and the IMF points out that some of the benefits can be achieved without a blockchain. The groundwork, such as financial literacy and a liquid secondary market, still has to be done, with or without tokens.

So RWA tokenization matters for Indonesia as long as it is treated as a complement to deepening the market. If you want to follow its progress, keep an eye on the RPOJK on tokenized asset offerings and the list of licensed providers on OJK’s website.

FAQ

Why is RWA tokenization considered important for Indonesia? Because it could help with several measurable problems: low use of capital market products, MSME financing that the capital market barely reaches, and strong appetite for digital assets that largely flows to foreign assets. The benefits are still potential and depend on supporting rules and infrastructure.

Can I buy tokenized SBN today? A model for tokenizing government bonds (Surat Utang Negara) through fund management contracts has passed OJK’s sandbox, but as of October 2026 the dedicated rules for offering tokenized assets are still being drafted. OJK’s remark about SBN from Rp10,000 describes a direction of development. Before buying any token, check the provider’s licensing status on OJK’s website.

How is buying retail SBN online different from tokenized SBN? Retail SBN bought online is recorded electronically in systems run by specific institutions and sold with a minimum of Rp1 million per series. Tokenized SBN records the rights to SBN as tokens on a blockchain, so units can be split smaller and, if the legal design allows, traded at any time.

Can tokenization help MSME financing? Potentially, yes. OJK sees tokenization as an alternative source of funding. But there is no meaningful track record in Indonesia yet, and tokens that fund businesses still carry default risk that needs to be assessed like any loan.

Are tokenized assets easier to sell? Not necessarily. The tokenized stock markets studied by the IMF were less liquid and more volatile than their traditional counterparts. How easily a token can be sold depends on the number of buyers and the token’s transfer rules.

Which countries in Asia have issued bonds as tokens? Hong Kong has issued tokenized government bonds since 2023, and Thailand prepared the G-Token for retail investors. The BIS also lists the Philippines and the Bank of Thailand among issuers of tokenized bonds.

What should I check before buying an RWA token in Indonesia? Make sure the token is offered through an OJK-licensed provider, understand what rights you get as a token holder, check where the underlying asset is held and who verifies it, and find out how easily the token can be sold again.

References

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Disclaimer

This article is educational content and not an invitation to invest or transact. Crypto assets and tokenized assets carry risk, including the risk of losing value. The products and initiatives named in this article are examples used to explain concepts, not recommendations, and may not be available or permitted to be offered in Indonesia. Do your own research (DYOR) before making any decision.