OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s digital identity project, World, formerly known as Worldcoin, faces challenges in Indonesia after local regulators temporarily suspended its registration certificates.

The Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Digital (Komdigi) has halted the Electronic System Operator Certificate Registration (TDPSE) for World and World ID over suspicious activity and alleged registration violations, the ministry announced on May 4.

After the suspension, Komdigi plans to summon World’s local subsidiaries, PT Terang Bulan Abadi and PT Sandina Abadi Nusantara, to provide clarification on the alleged violations, it stated.

According to a preliminary investigation, World’s PT Terang Bulan Abadi was allegedly operating without TDPSE, while PT Sandina Abadi Nusantara — the subsidiary World was using for providing its services — is allegedly involved in legal misrepresentation.

Indonesian law requires registration by all digital service providers

In the statement, Komdigi emphasized that all digital service providers in Indonesia must receive electronic registration in accordance with local laws.

Additionally, using another entity’s registration is considered a major breach of Indonesian digital operations law, the authority noted.

“Worldcoin services are recorded using TDPSE in the name of another legal entity, namely PT Sandina Abadi Nusantara,” Alexander Sabar, the Komdigi’s director general for digital supervision, said in the announcement, adding:

“Noncompliance with registration obligations and the use of the identity of another legal entity to carry out digital services is a serious violation.”

Community action required

According to Sabar, World’s temporary suspension in Indonesia is a measure taken to prevent potential risks to the community.

He mentioned that the digital ministry is committed to overseeing the digital ecosystem fairly and strictly to ensure the security of the national digital space.

Alexander Sabar is the head of Indonesia’s newly established Digital Space Monitoring Directorate General. Source: Komdigi

Sabar said proper supervision would require active participation from the community. “We invite the public to help maintain a safe and trusted digital space for all citizens,” he said. “Komdigi also appeals to the public to remain vigilant against unauthorized digital services, and to immediately report suspected violations through the official public complaint channel.”

The community response has been divided over the action by Komdigi.

“Good job Indonesia — at least somebody is standing up to that scam,” one Reddit user wrote.

Related: From digital identity to outer space: Projects push crypto use cases

Others fired back, hinting at potential benefits stemming from World’s offering in Indonesia for the general public.

“If giving up your iris biometrics means you can feed your loved ones for a few weeks, that might be a trade worth making. In the end, it all depends on what matters most to you,” another Redditor said.

World’s latest news from Indonesia follows World’s debut in the United States in May 2025, with the platform rolling out its digital identity tech in six cities initially.

A number of global regulators were pushing back on World’s operations since its launch in July 2023, with governments like Germany, Kenya and Brazil expressing concerns over potential risks to the security of biometric data passed by users.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Opinion by: Shane Molidor, Founder, Forgd

For years, launching a crypto project in the United States has been a maze of uncertainty. Legal ambiguity and a hostile regulatory environment have driven founders offshore, turning places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands into global hubs for blockchain innovation. 

With Trump’s election, things finally started to change, with a US administration openly declaring its intention to be crypto-friendly. Yet, despite the rhetoric, nothing concrete has changed so far.

Launching a crypto project in the US is just as difficult as ever. US regulatory agencies continue to offer nothing but vague threats and “regulation by enforcement” lawsuits. America wants to be a leader in crypto, but, even under the Trump administration, it isn’t taking action to create the conditions that would make that happen. 

Killing crypto in America

Every crypto project faces the same fundamental problem: Achieving decentralization is critical to avoid regulatory scrutiny, but until a project launches its token, a degree of centralization is unavoidable.

The SEC’s outdated Howey test ensures that nearly every legitimate crypto project gets classified as a security. The logic is self-defeating. Projects can’t decentralize without launching a token, but launching a token in the US instantly puts them in the SEC’s crosshairs.

This isn’t just a theoretical issue; it has real consequences. Liquidity providers, essential for all new token launches, won’t engage with US-based projects because they assume their tokens will be classified as securities. Centralized exchanges refuse to list tokens issued from US entities for the same reason. Even decentralized exchanges face pressure from their legal teams to avoid actively seeding liquidity for American projects. The result? US founders are boxed out of the global crypto economy before they even get started.

Offshore jurisdictions are winning

This regulatory failure has spawned an entire cottage industry of offshore legal firms specializing in setting up token-issuing entities. With its FINMA no-action letter system, Switzerland has become a hotbed for crypto projects because it offers one of the few structured ways to get legal clarity on a token’s classification. The Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands have also established themselves as crypto safe havens, providing flexible corporate structures that allow projects to operate with far less regulatory risk. 

Recent: US Treasury wants to cut off Huione over ties to crypto crime

The absurdity is that the actual work — the development, the hiring, the innovation — still happens in the US. The token issuance gets pushed offshore via “Associations” and “Foundations,” which serve non-profits operating independently of US-based development shops. American founders are forced to funnel money into unnecessary legal fees, overseas operators, and shell foundations to avoid the inevitable crackdown from US regulators. This isn’t just bad for crypto; it’s bad for America. Until it can be solved, the US will continue to hemorrhage talent, investment, and influence to less myopic jurisdictions.

Make America crypto-friendly

The US has spent years fumbling crypto policy, and now, even with an administration that claims to be pro-crypto, it’s still failing to deliver real change. The solution isn’t to promise capital gains tax exemptions on crypto, as some have suggested. That does little to ameliorate the punishing regulatory landscape US-based projects are forced to navigate. If the US truly wants to lead in crypto, it also must take the lead in providing regulatory clarity.

That means finally recognizing that the same regulations that have governed traditional financial markets can’t always be applied to crypto. The Howey test doesn’t work. Instead, the government must provide a new and functional legal framework for the crypto industry. 

It’s time for US legislators and regulators to acknowledge that crypto tokens can’t achieve decentralization instantaneously and almost always require the efforts of a team of core contributors to bootstrap initial growth and development. The federal government must devise a version of the Howey test that does not automatically classify every new crypto token as a security but instead allows tokens a grace period to decentralize. In conjunction with this, the US must establish new protections to ensure insiders aren’t unduly benefiting from crypto projects while they scale. 

In addition to swiftly ending the “regulation by enforcement” approach employed under Gary Gensler’s SEC, a tactic seemingly designed to gradually smother crypto activity in the US, the government must provide clear guidelines. It needs to be feasible for market makers to evaluate whether US tokens are commodities or securities with a degree of stability and predictability. This is the only way to end the blanket bans market makers have placed on US tokens and bring crypto development back to America.

America’s window of opportunity is closing

Crypto founders aren’t waiting for Washington to figure it out. Every day, without clear regulations, more crypto projects are incorporated offshore. The US doesn’t even need to “embrace” crypto. It just needs to stop actively driving it away.

If this administration truly wants to make the US the leader in crypto, it needs to move beyond campaign slogans and start fixing the fundamental problems that forced this industry offshore in the first place. And it needs to act fast. 

Opinion by: Shane Molidor, Founder, Forgd.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Increasing institutional interest and moves toward legal frameworks for stablecoins have seen the space grow, with five major projects slated to expand the market in the near future.

In the EU, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory package is in full force and has given stablecoin issuers clear guidelines by which they can enter European markets. In the US, the STABLE Act and the GENIUS Act, which would provide rules for stablecoins, are making their way through Congress. 

As a result, major payments firms like Mastercard and Visa are stepping up support for stablecoin systems, and new coins have appeared, boosting the overall market capitalization of the stablecoin market. 

Here are five major stablecoin initiatives projected to grow crypto adoption.

Tether to relaunch in the US

Stablecoin giant Tether is eyeing a relaunch in the US with a dollar-based stablecoin. 

Tether’s USDt (USDT) is already known worldwide as the largest stablecoin on the market, providing liquidity to crypto trading pairs on numerous exchanges. 

However, Tether has found itself in hot water with regulators over proof of its reserves, other financial transparency and Anti-Money Laundering concerns. 

In an April 30 interview with CNBC, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that the firm wants to launch a rebranded coin in the US, separate from its ubiquitous international stablecoin. “A domestic stablecoin would be different from the international stablecoin,” he said.

Tether holds the lion’s share of the stablecoin market. Source: Nansen

The move would give Tether access to US financial markets as the latter’s exposure to crypto widens under the pro-crypto administration of US President Donald Trump.

Trump dabbles in the dollar with USD1

At the beginning of March, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the cryptocurrency project tied to the Trump family, launched its dollar-backed stablecoin, USD1, on the BNB Chain and Ethereum.

According to CoinMarketCap, the coin has over $2 billion in market capitalization at publishing time.

The stablecoins follow other high-profile crypto projects that use the president’s personal brand as a marketing tool, namely the TRUMP and WLFI memecoins that launched ahead of Trump’s inauguration. 

Related: Are Donald Trump’s tariffs a legal house of cards?

Trump’s ability to influence stablecoin policy has led a group of US senators to call for an inquiry into his personal interests in the project, calling it a clear conflict of interest.

The letter calling for an inquiry. Source: Senator Schiff

Custodia and Vantage Bank launch bank-issued coin on Ethereum 

Two US banks, the crypto-friendly Custodia Bank and the Texas-based Vantage Bank, have entered a partnership to issue the supposed first bank-issued stablecoin in the US, UK and Europe.

On March 25, Custodia stated that it tokenized US dollar demand deposits on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 standard token called Avit. 

Custodia CEO and crypto advocate Caitlin Long said that Avit is a “real dollar” in that it tokenizes funds that customers can withdraw on demand, like checking account deposits. 

Stripe is testing a stablecoin product 

On April 28, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison announced that his global payments platform was working on a US-dollar-based stablecoin product for use outside the US.

Source: Patrick Collison

The move comes after it received approval to acquire stablecoin payments network Bridge in a $1-billion deal in October 2024, a deal which it completed in February 2025.

Bridge was founded by two former Coinbase executives, Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, in 2022 and competes with firms using the ubiquitous SWIFT global payments system. 

The stablecoin initiative is the latest development in the firm’s expanding crypto plans. After a false start on Bitcoin support in 2014, the firm began rebuilding its crypto team in earnest in 2021. On Oct. 9, 2024, the firm opened USDC support for users in 70 countries. 

UAE’s largest bank to issue stablecoin

Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company, Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) partnered to launch a dirham-backed stablecoin on April 28.

According to The National, FAB — the largest bank in the UAE — will issue the stablecoin on the ADI network pending approval from the central bank. 

The ADI network is a project of the ADI Foundation in Abu Dhabi, which itself is a nonprofit organization founded by Sirius International Holding, a local holding firm with a $243 billion market capitalization. 

The firms claim that the stablecoin will “have a significant impact on various industries, including finance, commerce, and trade.”

Related: Stablecoin adoption grows with new US bills, Japan’s open approach

Visa, SBI and Mastercard add more stablecoin support 

New stablecoin issuances are picking up the pace, and payments firms, banks and financial institutions are adding support for them as well.

On April 28, international payments giant Mastercard partnered with OKX to expand its stablecoin card options, which allow cardholders to spend stablecoins through their Mastercard linked with prominent crypto firms. 

Two days later, Visa announced that it partnered with Stripe and Bridge on April 30 to offer stablecoin payments on its network in Latin America, starting with Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

SBI VC Trade, the cryptocurrency subsidiary of the Japanese financial conglomerate SBI, said it was preparing to add support for USDC after local regulators softened their approach to foreign stablecoins. Pending formal approval, the trading platform will be one of the first in Japan to offer cryptocurrency trading in USDC (USDC).

SBI VC Trade CEO Tomohiko Kondo shows the firm getting the go-ahead from Japanese regulators. Source: Tomohiko Kondo

Regulators and payments providers worldwide are warming up to stablecoins. US lawmakers have yet to vote on the aforementioned crypto bills, but if the stablecoin frameworks pass, adoption is set to take off as firms gain access to a large financial market with clear guidelines.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight