Indonesia to Launch National Stablecoin Anchored to State Bonds

Speaking at the Indonesia Digital Finance & Economy Festival, Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo announced that the central bank plans to issue digital central-bank securities backed by government bonds. According to a CNBC Indonesia report, he described the initiative as “the digital rupiah with underlying SBN [government bonds], Indonesia’s national version of a stablecoin.”

The move signals that BI is seeking to combine a central-bank digital currency infrastructure with tokenized sovereign-backed instruments. The idea is to use the digital rupiah as a foundation and layer atop it a form of tokenized government bond exposure, thereby creating a stable-value instrument underpinned by state assets. While the full operational details have not yet been published, the intent is clear: to offer a regulated, sovereign-backed digital asset that functions in a similar way to private stablecoins, but anchored firmly to the national currency and backed by government bonds.

For Indonesia, this decision comes at a time when digital finance, payment modernisation and financial inclusion are high on the agenda. As part of its strategic thinking over several years now, the country has been exploring ways to use digital-currency innovation to widen access and reduce dependence on traditional cash infrastructure, becoming more integrated into digital payment systems. The rollout of a sovereign-backed tokenised instrument could mark a new phase in that trajectory.

This approach addresses one of the more persistent criticisms of many stablecoins-the lack of transparent, credible backing and governance-from a market-structure perspective. By anchoring the digital asset to government bonds, BI is signalling that it intends to bring stability in value and credibility into a tokenized instrument rather than relying on private-sector stablecoins, which have invariably raised questions over collateral, liquidity, and regulation. In so doing, the move might also provide further liquidity channels within the ecosystem of the bond market at home, given the linkage of tokenized securities with government debt.

However, the announcement leaves open a series of key operational and regulatory questions. The legal nature of the instrument remains to be clarified: Will it be a direct liability of BI? Will it be treated as a tokenised bond? What ledger or blockchain infrastructure will underpin issuance and settlement? How will intermediaries, banks, fintechs or other entities connect to the system? Further, how will secondary markets operate, how will transfers be governed, and how will oversight of transparency, cybersecurity, interoperability and user data/privacy be addressed? These are non-trivial questions, especially when introducing a novel asset class into a regulated central bank framework.

Another dimension to monitor is the potential interaction with traditional banking systems and monetary-policy transmission. The digitisation of this kind of instrument could affect liquidity flows, deposit structures or capital-market intermediation. Regulators and market participants alike will need to evaluate how these dynamics interplay with existing banking, payment and settlement ecosystems. If not carefully managed, there could be unintended consequences in areas such as risk management, run-risks or cross-border flows.

The timing of the rollout also matters. Although the intention has been publicly declared, timelines, pilot phases or live-issuance dates have not yet been confirmed by BI. Stakeholders in Indonesia’s fintech, banking and capital-market sectors should keep an eye on forthcoming regulatory guidelines, authorization paths for intermediaries, issuance parameters, user segments (retail vs. wholesale) and public-communications from the central bank.

Indonesia’s unveiling of a sovereign-government-bond-backed digital asset layered on its digital-rupiah strategy represents a forward-looking attempt to modernize payments, asset tokenization and monetary-framework architecture. While the concept aligns with many global central-bank explorations of digital currencies, what sets this apart is the explicit combination of CBDC infrastructure and tokenized sovereign-backed securities.

The real test now will be in the execution: whether BI can design, launch and operate the instrument in a way that delivers stability, inclusivity and integration, without introducing unintended systemic risks.