Taiwan Regulating Crypto Before Most Asian Countries

[m2017]

Looks like Taiwan is paving a great start to crypto summer. It's not official yet, but we'll know within the next 10 days. Especially if we see a bunch of Chinese exchanges popping up out of nowhere. There will be signs

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/07/01/taiwan-s-sweeping-crypto-law-raises-the-bar-with-licensing-reserve-mandates-and-tough-penalties

Big step for Bitcoin and crypto in Asia

"The legislation requires all virtual asset service providers, including cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms, to secure explicit licensing from the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) before they can legally operate in the country."
The text is taken from the article at OP's link.

This appears to be a typical move by a regulator to force any crypto service provider operating in their jurisdiction to be licensed.

"Platforms that are already registered for anti-money laundering compliance will receive a 12-month grace period to submit license applications and up to 21 months in total to obtain full FSC approval and any other required permits. Until now, crypto businesses operating in Taiwan only needed to register for anti-money laundering compliance."
The text is taken from the article at OP's link.

The reason for all this is simple: taxes. If crypto service providers are making a profit, why aren't they sharing it with the regulator? This needs to be fixed urgently.

For now, this regulation only affects crypto businesses, and regulators haven't yet cared about ordinary users. They'll get to them later.

Overall, the trend is clear. The same licensing requirement will be introduced in other countries, gradually.

This is also a positive aspect, as fraudsters won't be able to obtain licenses (but that's unlikely to stop them from committing crimes ).

[Oasisman]

This is a move to regulate the crypto industry in Taiwan to avoid unauthorized operation, fraud, and price manipulation. Crypto service providers would be mandated to be licensed by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC)  before they can operate in Taiwan.

Although this move will promote centralization, it is a move to foster order and risk management in the industry. Without control, scammers and fraudsters will take advantage of the citizens of the country who are interested in crypto. Ensuring that the citizens are protected from bad actors is essential to the success of the sector.

But scammers and fraudsters have been there for centuries even with the traditional fiat currencies and banking system. I find that excuse quite weak. The actual goal is to either force people back to fiat currencies or slow down crypto adoption.

There is a reason people choose to use crypto and once that reason or freedom is taken away, they will see no more need to venture into crypto. This is what the Governments and traditional banking systems are trying to fight under the guise of regulations. If indeed regulations completely eliminated fraud and scam, then there would be any committed with the traditional finance system today.

I've been thinking the same. All these crypto regulations create more hardships to ordinary people who use crypto than from protecting them against scammers and fraudsters. Regulating crypto means completely defeating its original purpose, in most cases. The authorities are not just trying to control what's impossible to control, but also putting a tax on it so they can monetize every crypto transaction, and they are also trying to keep people away from any crypto transactions. All these at the same time are a win-win situation for them.

These may look good on paper and may attract investors/businesses to engage in the crypto space before they can see the bigger picture behind these regulations.

[fullfitlarry]

I don't think that this is the first time in Asia, in our country, the Philippines, almost all international exchanges are out right now because of tougher crypto regulations.

Although Binance is trying to make a comeback, but still they will have to work with local companies but it's not yet a assurance that they can comeback with 100% of services being offered to us.

So I guess this is going to be the new cycle for countries in Asia, they are going after regulations to make it safe for their population.

[BitDiscussion]

It's all about anti money laundering, maybe this would put an end to ban every year from china especially, this is what they should have done for man years in the past already but I suspect that they intentionally ignore.
China is very capable, they knew what they can do but since they refuse I believe they have their reasons, and one that I believe is manipulation of the market, putting ban on crypto and Bitcoin is still a thing but not as effective as it was in the past.
I believe that they have intentionally ignored regulations, they could have done that very long time ago before the US, they have been pretending to hate Bitcoin but they also accumulate Bitcoin.

China? Thought we are talking about Taiwan here as the title says. Though maybe you mean that China can get an inspiration to them. It happens though. If on China, I think there is more than just money laundering, since they can just regulate and ask a KYC to help prevent or scare those who will attempt to launder money but maybe they think it was not enough to prevent all and they think a total ban would be much better. China is one of those known strict countries though. So I won't wonder if things like this will be done by them. Manipulation is impossible now, given that they put a total ban on crypto. But if it was true that they still accumulate BTC secretly, then they should still make an impact in the global market.