Taiwan to Launch STO Regulations this Year

Taiwan continues to be one of the most crypto friendly nations in Asia. This week the country's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced plans to issue STO fundraising regulations in the coming months. The decision reflects the growing popularity of these regulated tokens amongst traditional financial institutions. Also, it shows Taiwan’s commitment to innovation.

News of the forthcoming regulatory framework came via a press release published by the Taiwan Economic Daily. The report detailed a roadmap for the process. Additionally, the report announced an April 2019 shareholder and industry conference. In this meetup, regulators will listen to concerns from leaders in the STO sector.  Regulators intend to take into consideration these concerns prior to establishing the new regulations.

The decision to institute STO regulations is a break from Taiwan's original “hands-off” stance towards cryptocurrencies. Taiwan began to alter its crypto course late last year. In November 2018, government officials tightened AML regulations. The move targeted crypto exchanges in particular.

Taiwan Regulations

The newly enacted law called the Money laundering Control Act and Terrorism Financing Prevention Act placed crypto exchanges directly under the country's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). The regulations gave the FSC the ability to ban transactions suspected of being tied to fraudulent activity.

Speaking on the decision to bring more regulations to crypto exchanges, Taiwan's Ministry of Justice explained how the new regulations help keep Taiwan in line with international AML laws. Countries from around the globe began to implement AML and KYC protocols after the 2017 crypto break out.

Taiwan Ministry of Justice via Wikimedia

Taiwan to Open New Markets

Taiwanese regulators are keen to the fact that security tokens enable firms to make previously nonliquidable assets into liquid assets. Discussing the opportunities tokenization brings to the table, FSC chairman Gu Lixiong described security tokens as the next generation of products to hit the financial market. Also, he touched on the importance of attracting more STOs to Taiwan in the coming months.

Taiwan – A Crypto Haven

Taiwan must be considered when discussing what countries are the most favorable for crypto investors. A recent Hackernoon report highlighted the many reasons why Taiwan is so desired in the market. For one, Taiwan hosts many robust startup incubation and acceleration programs. The Taiwan Tech Arena is one of these programs. The program seeks to spawn 100 new startups a year.

Taiwan Tech

Taiwan is home to some of the top technical universities globally. The National Taiwan University (NTU) ranks in the top 1-percent of all technical colleges. Consequently, the high level of schooling provided in the nation helped raise literacy to 98.7-percent. All of these factors made Taiwan a leader in innovation.

Taiwan Leads in Blockchain

The country's close proximity to China makes it an ideal location for Chinese investors looking to pursue their crypto investment strategy. China banned crypto exchanges in 2017. Since then, China's anti-crypto stance broadened to include most crypto activities. China’s crypto ban made crypto investors search for friendlier shores.

Taiwan Today

Today, Taiwan is considered among the most crypto-friendly nations in the world. You can expect to see the country reap huge benefits from its positioning in the market. Taiwan is ready for the new digital economy and these latest regulations will further the countries blockchain aspirations.