Indonesian Crypto Exchange Pintu Raises $113M in the Face of a Bear Market

A relatively unknown crypto exchange in Indonesia has secured a major funding round with eyes on the expansion of services to its burgeoning local market.

The whopping $113 million Series B saw investment from venture capital firms Pantera Capital, Intudo Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners among others. Furthermore, the round follows a Series A+ that netted the firm $35 million in August 2021 and a $6 million Series A in May.

Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia with 280 million, has a booming crypto market which has doubled from six to 12 million between February 2021 and 2022. It is about twice the number of public equity investors in the country according to Pintu Chief Marketing Officer Timothius Martin.

Pintu, launched in April 2020, is a crypto exchange regulated and registered with the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappepti).

Aiming to be a top crypto exchange in Asia

The crypto exchange is planning an aggressive expansion of services that will align it with those provided by Binance and Coinbase. Pintu currently offers more than 65 crypto assets, including a native PTU token which can be staked into a Pintu Earn product offering yields of up to 15%, according to TechCrunch.

Crypto asset ownership only has a 4% penetration in Indonesia, but Pintu founder and CEO, Jeth Soetoyo, is confident that things are still very early stage:

“We believe that crypto adoption in Indonesia is only in its beginning stages, and educating users on the fundamentals is critical to ensuring this growth continues in a healthy way.”

The company plans to use the funding to scale its operations by adding more assets, more blockchain compatibility, more staff, and new products and services. It also plans to expand its Pintu Academy which, just like Binance, aims to educate investors on the industry and associated risks to promote growth in a sustainable way.

Martin stated that the market is more mature now compared to last year and investors are starting to make decisions based on the use-cases of the crypto assets, before adding:

“For example, gaming is a big thing in Indonesia with over 100 million gamers in the country. This spurs significant growth in gaming and metaverse-related crypto assets, as many believe that these projects are contributing to the future of gaming.”

Crypto adoption in Asia growing

Pantera partner Paul Veradittakit added that “Crypto adoption is happening everywhere, and Indonesia has proven itself to be one of the world’s most rapidly growing markets for crypto assets.”

A minor tax levy was imposed on crypto transactions in Indonesia in May, as reported by BeInCrypto.

According to recent research by Accenture, more than half of Asia’s affluent investors have some crypto in their portfolios. Investors in Indonesia and Thailand had the largest percentages, it revealed.