Fundraising through security token offerings (STOs) would be approved starting from October at the earliest, which would particularly benefit start-ups, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
The STO regulations are to be a world first, as most of the commission’s foreign counterparts require STOs to comply with existing securities laws, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
“It was not easy to establish a set of regulations, considering there was little to reference in other nations. We needed to balance consumer protection and industrial growth, and curb market volatility,” Koo told a news conference in New Taipei City.
Although the regulations might not please everyone, they are the best version the commission could think of, he said, adding that the rules would be open to public comment for two months.
A securities token is a kind of virtual currency. Unlike bitcoin, which has no central issuer and can only be created through a process called “mining,” securities tokens are launched by companies that wish to raise funds.
The commission did not change a NT$30 million (US$964,599) fundraising limit stipulated in the draft regulation, although the funds would be exempted from some administrative requirements.
Companies wishing to raise more funds would need to apply to run an experiment in the regulatory sandbox.
However, the commission loosened restrictions on investors by allowing them to purchase NT$300,000 in securities tokens for a single project, up from the previously proposed NT$100,000, based on investors’ opinions shared during a public hearing, Koo said.
To prevent investors from manipulating token prices, the number of tokens traded per day may not exceed half of the total number of issued tokens, Koo said.
Privately held companies registered in Taiwan would be allowed to conduct STOs, whether local or foreign, while listed companies cannot, as they already have other fundraising tools, he said.
The commission has not yet received any STO applications, but start-ups are expected to show interest, as they have fewer fundraising tools, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) told the Taipei Times.
Companies would not be permitted to issue tokens on more than one exchange, which is responsible for checking issuers’ qualifications and overseeing their white papers, Koo said.
Exchanges that wish to launch their own securities tokens would be monitored by the Taipei Exchange, Koo said.
Only exchanges with paid-in capital of more than NT$100 million could issue STOs after obtaining a securities dealer license, although they may only help companies conduct one STO per year and the cumulative funds raised may not exceed NT$100 million, the commission said.
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
Luxury fashion powerhouse Prada SpA has acknowledged the ancient Indian roots of its new sandal design after the debut of the open-toe footwear sparked a furor among Indian artisans and politicians thousands of miles from the catwalk in Italy. Images from Prada’s fashion show in Milan last weekend showed models wearing leather sandals with a braided design that resembled handmade Kolhapuri slippers with designs dating back to the 12th century. A wave of criticism in the media and from lawmakers followed over the Italian brand’s lack of public acknowledgement of the Indian sandal design, which is named after a city in the
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
RSS