For daily payments, Bali is thoroughly used to QRIS. According to Bank Indonesia's Bali office as quoted by Balipost (3 September 2026), the island had 1,144,332 QRIS merchants through July 2026, about 89.5% of them micro and small businesses, with Rp21.63 trillion in transaction value. A warung or small shop in Ubud almost certainly takes QRIS. The same report mentions a 0% merchant fee for transactions up to Rp100,000 from 1 October 2026. What that means for you: rupiah in a bank account or e-wallet is more useful in Ubud than crypto in a wallet, which leads into the next point.
Ubud appears on nearly every "Bitcoin ATMs in Indonesia" list for one reason. An article dated 30 December 2014 (Medium, the 37Coins account) says a Lamassu machine was installed at Hubud in November 2014, in the coworking space on Jalan Monkey Forest, operated by the Bitcoin.co.id exchange and described as Indonesia's second machine after the one in Kuta. The Medium page refused our access (HTTP 403), so we read its content through a search summary. The Paypers reported that Hubud began accepting Bitcoin payments in 2014, so members could buy memberships and events with it. A Finansialku piece (first published 2018, updated June 2024) lists "Ubud (Hubud, Jl. Monkey Forest 88X)" as one of three locations, but the list looks carried over from 2018.
What we did not find: any 2025 or 2026 evidence that the machine is on, a dated photo, or a statement from the operator. The exchange once called Bitcoin.co.id is now known as Indodax, which is OJK-licensed, but nothing we could read on its official pages refers to a machine in Ubud. An Indodax office in Ubud (the Blockchain Zoo building) appears only in a 2019 third-party blog list, and its current status is unconfirmed. Our conclusion: the Hubud machine's status is unknown, and it is most likely gone. The conservative rule is simple. Do not carry cash down Jalan Monkey Forest looking for a machine based on evidence more than a decade old.
Long-stay people in Ubud tend to fit one of three profiles: remote workers paid in dollars or crypto, retreat guests carrying modest savings, or crypto holders who want part of it in rupiah. All three can use the same basic flow, and it lives almost entirely on a screen rather than at a counter.
- Open and verify an account on an OJK-licensed app. Indodax states in its Help Center that Indonesian citizens verify with the e-KTP and foreigners with a passport, checked through a liveness test. We did not check foreigner requirements on other platforms; Tokocrypto's help page mentioning a KITAS reached us only as a search snippet, and whether short-visa visitors are accepted is unconfirmed per platform.
- Have a bank account in your own name. Licensed apps accept deposits only from an account with a matching name. Short-stay tourists usually do not have an Indonesian account, and we did not research account-opening rules for foreigners, so for some readers this step is a real barrier.
- Top up rupiah by virtual account or QRIS, then buy. On Indodax, QRIS costs 0.7% and virtual accounts Rp1,000 to Rp3,330 depending on the bank; on Pintu, virtual accounts carry no platform fee.
- To cash out, sell and withdraw to your own bank account. Pintu charges Rp4,500 per withdrawal and Indodax Rp10,000, (the CFX fee structure changes on 1 October, so re-check).
{{/steps}}
Tax is the same wherever you sit. Selling through a licensed domestic trader attracts final PPh Article 22 of 0.21%, withheld by the platform. On a Rp10,000,000 sale that is Rp21,000, plus Rp4,500 to Rp10,000 in withdrawal fees. Details are in our crypto tax guide, and the full from-scratch walkthrough in how to buy crypto in Indonesia. Fee comparisons are in best crypto exchanges in Indonesia, with individual reviews such as Indodax and Pintu.
There is a dull but honest answer for tourists: if all you need is rupiah cash for a week in Ubud, the cheapest route is usually not crypto at all, but withdrawing from a bank ATM with your home bank card, or exchanging foreign currency at a licensed changer. Converting crypto to rupiah adds a layer of fees, tax and risk that pocket money does not need.
Banks, ATMs and money changers in a small town
Ubud has the major bank branches. Third-party directories list a BCA office at Jalan Raya Ubud 10 and a BRI main branch on Jalan Raya Ubud, along with many ATM points. We did not verify those addresses with the banks, and opening hours may differ from the directories. To deposit cash into your own account, which is useful if you hold rupiah notes and want to top up an app (see buying crypto with cash), a teller or cash-deposit machine inside a bank building is safer than a street-side machine.
To change foreign currency, use a Bank Indonesia-licensed operator. BI counts 601 licensed money changers (KUPVA BB) in Bali as of 2025, and according to Antara (13 March 2026) BI launched moneychangerbali.com and a BI-PATROL channel for reporting illegal operators. The Bali government's official Love Bali list for Ubud that we opened shows seven locations, among them Jalan Raya Campuhan, Jalan Raya Ubud (the Puri parking area), Jalan Jatayu, Jalan Hanoman, Jalan Bisma and Jalan Beraban. The page does not explain how to verify a licence, so still check the BI certificate on site and the QR-coded logo. A licensed changer does not necessarily accept or swap crypto; we did not check, and we found nothing saying a KUPVA licence covers crypto assets.
On card safety, travel forums and Bali media repeatedly report skimming devices on street-side and minimarket ATMs. The dated report we could read (The Bali Sun, 27 June 2023) concerned Seminyak, with handwritten "broken" signs steering tourists to another machine. The advice travels to Ubud: use ATMs inside bank buildings, look for an extra card reader, and set a daily withdrawal limit in your bank app. It is not a crypto issue, but in a cash-reliant place, money lost at an ATM forces you to liquidate more assets.
Internet and power: why they matter for crypto transactions
Long-stay residents often pick Ubud because the internet is adequate. The Bali Sun (19 August 2024) reported that Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison erected a 55-metre cell tower in the Monkey Forest with a permanent generator, to strengthen connectivity for the Padangtegal customary village, tourists and remote workers. The same source puts Bali's network coverage at 85%, above the 79% national average. That is good news if you open an exchange app from your villa.
Power is the weaker link. On 2 May 2025 a fault on the Java-Bali undersea cable shut down the island's power plants together, around 940,000 customers were affected, and according to press coverage internet and card machines failed in many places until supply returned. We also saw a travel report that on 22 February 2026 a Java-Bali interconnection fault again cut power to nine regencies for about an hour, but we found no official source for that. Practical lessons:
- Do not start a large transfer or sale when your battery, data plan or router has no backup. A transaction cut off midway, say after you press send but before confirmation, is harder to trace.
- Keep two-factor authentication on a device that does not die with your router. SMS codes need mobile signal, while authenticator apps work offline.
- Carry enough rupiah cash for two days. When card machines go down, QRIS usually goes with them.
Paying for a retreat or villa in crypto: don't
Some retreat organisers and villa owners in Bali informally accept "crypto payments". The legal position is clear: the rupiah is the only legal means of payment in Indonesia according to Bank Indonesia press release 20/4/DKom (13 January 2018), which cites Law 7/2011 on Currency, and Bali's governor warned tourists in May 2023 about paying with crypto, citing sanctions that included criminal penalties and deportation (The Jakarta Post, 29 May 2023). We found no news of a tourist being arrested for it, but there is no reason to take an avoidable risk. The route: sell on a licensed platform, withdraw rupiah, and pay by transfer or QRIS through an e-wallet. The wider legal picture is in is crypto legal in Indonesia.
USDT shops and cash couriers: what Ubud residents should know
BaliUSDT, one of the operators we read, lists Ubud among its cash-delivery areas, and states on its own site that it is not a licensed financial institution, exchange or payment service provider. MoneyBox and CangguSwap are centred on Canggu and its surroundings (see Canggu). All of that is operator claims, not our verification, and we found no clear legal basis for such operations. A fuller comparison of operators and documented incidents is in buying crypto with cash and our Kuta guide, covering the area where all three violent cases we recorded took place (Kuta and South Kuta).
We found no similar incident reported in Ubud itself. That is not a safety guarantee: the recorded pattern targets crypto holders and cash couriers, and a remote hillside villa near Ubud is exactly where a crypto holder would find it hardest to get help. If you still choose to meet in person, do it in a public place in daylight, and read crypto scams in Indonesia first. For large sums, licensed OTC desks use bank transfer and KYC, not cash; minimums start around Rp50 million according to a September 2025 report, so they are not a solution for a month-long retreat (crypto OTC in Indonesia).
Where to go from Ubud
If you want to meet the Bitcoin community, its centre is on the south-west coast, at Bitcoin House in Canggu, which focuses on education rather than swapping rupiah. For licensed administrative business, such as the Bank Indonesia Bali office and the big banks, Denpasar is the reference city. Travellers who have just arrived or are about to leave through the airport should read Kuta, and those staying in the beach-resort belt should read Seminyak. Beyond Bali, see crypto across Indonesian islands for comparison.
That choice does not replace a licensed app, and we spell out the consequences in our credit card and PayPal guide. What matters most for Ubud: assume there is no machine, assume the internet can drop, and build a money plan that does not depend on one location.
