Taiwan appears to be taking a different approach than its neighbor China when it comes to distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrency. In a report from the Newslens, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Wellington Koo told a joint meeting of Parliament and the cabinet that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are an opportunity – not something to fear. The comments came in response to questions by Congressman Jason Hsu, who asked the Chairman publicly about his position.
Koo only recently became the Chairman of the FSC last month. At that time, Koo was quoted as positioning the FSC as strictly enforcing existing rules and pursuing non-compliant firms. The FSC regulates not only securities but the banking system as well. It appears that while Koo expects compliance he is not anti-innovation and appreciates the need for emerging technologies to grow organically before becoming too aggressive with regulation.
Hsu commented on the recent actions by other Asian countries regarding Crypto;
“Just because China and South Korea are banning, doesn’t mean that Taiwan should follow suit – there is a huge opportunity for growth in the future. We should emulate Japan, where they treat cryptocurrency as a highly regulated, highly monitored industry like securities.”
This posture also leaves open the development of an Initial Coin Offering market. Following China’s actions to ban all things crypto, it has been reported that a good amount of that business moved into Japan as people voted with their digital feet.