Taiwan to Regulate ICOs
FSC Chairman Wellington Koo.
The chairman of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Wellington Koo, has reportedly confirmed that the commission is drafting national standards for first coin offerings (ICOs). The FSC aims”to make virtual tokens as easy to invest in as stocks and equally as liquid,” the Taipei Times reported on Oct. 23.
At a finance committee meeting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator William Tseng requested Koo if the government would govern ICOs. Tseng pointed out that 127 ICO whitepapers globally were discovered to be fake, the book described, including that 80 whitepapers were shown to be incorrect as April. Findings were quoted by the legislator from Satis Group showing that 81 percent of ICOs have been identified as scams.
The information outlet conveyed the reply of Koo:
The commission would regulate ICOs… [but] tokens exchanged for products, like those used in accruing points at convenience stores or mileage points accepted by airlines, would not be addressed by the standards.
In May, a Chinese business organization, China’s National Committee of Experts on the Internet Financial Security Technology, said it found 421 cryptocurrencies. Independently, the Wall Street Journal analyzed 1,450 ICOs and”found 271 with red flags that include plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and fake or missing executive teams and bitcoin casino best bonus.”
Securities Tokens
Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling was quoted by the Taipei Times asserting:
An ICO frequently confuses with the trading of cryptocurrenciesbitcoin casino no deposit bonus buy a bitcoin casino governor of Taiwan’s central bank, Yang Chin-long, told the finance committee that”the government will regard cryptocurrencies as virtual commodities or assets as opposed to currencies, because they have no intrinsic value.” Tsai elaborated that”cryptocurrency trading is like trading in gold, for which the commission only implements money laundering controls.”
If a token functions similar to a security,”the commission would define it as a’securities token’ and subject it to the Securities and Exchange Act,” the publication quoted Tsai describing, including:
The issuer would need to disclose information similar to what companies that are traded need to do now.
Regarding the time period of the ICO criteria,”The draft is to be completed by June next year,” the news outlet detailed, noting that”The commission has no intention of controlling the creativity and productivity related to cryptocurrencies if they are not used as securities.”
“The more we regulate, the more this new financial behaviour wanes,” Koo was quoted saying. In June, the FSC indicated that focus on anti-money laundering measures and it intended to maintain only a limited supervision of cryptocurrencies. In April, news.Bitcoin.com reported that Taiwanese bitcoin regulations are expected by November.
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Source: bitcoincasinoreview.info
