Cryptocurrency trading exchange Maicoin Ltd (現代財富科技) yesterday unveiled a security token offering (STO) to help local carbon credits circulate in overseas markets through the trading of tokens.
Maicoin has not submitted its STO application to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) for approval as the commission only recently published draft STO regulations.
The company said that it is aiming to become the first company to conduct an STO in Taiwan.
While an STO is mainly used to raise funds, Maicoin has decided to conduct an STO linked to a public benefit so that people can better understand innovative financial tools, chief executive officer Alex Liu (劉世偉) told a news conference in Taipei.
Maicoin plans to achieve carbon credits of 50,000 tonnes in cooperation with local transportation companies that utilize electric vehicles, including bus companies and electric scooter manufacturers, as well as partnering with other companies to plant trees in Nantou County, Liu said.
The company plans to issue 50,000 digital tokens, which would be traded on its own platform with the price initially set at between US$10 to US$20 per token, Liu said.
The company is using the prices of carbon emission tokens in foreign markets as a reference, he said.
Maicoin plans to launch the STO by the end of this year, after winning the commission’s approval, he added.
The company earlier said that it was interested in running a “regulatory sandbox” experiment for an STO in a bid to raise more than NT$30 million (US$966,433).
The total amount of funds raised by the first project would be less than NT$30 million as the company is trying to test the waters, Liu said.
Asked why Maicoin plans to transfer the carbon credits into securities tokens rather than regular digital tokens, Liu said investing in carbon emission trading is like investing in securities as the carbon credits are limited and valuable.
Besides, potential buyers could view the tokens as a kind of securities and list them as assets on their balance sheet, he said.
Although there is no carbon trading market in Taiwan, China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) has agreed to buy the tokens as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility program, Liu said.
Maicoin also hopes to sell the tokens in overseas markets, but the company needs to look at the local regulations first, it said.
For instance, some nations have different regulations about whether tokens can be used to offset a buyers’ carbon footprint, Maicoin official Chen Ming-hui (陳明惠) said.
The company would invite third-party companies to examine its carbon emission projects in Taiwan and make sure the project meets international standards, Chen said.
Maicoin would also ask certified accountants to check if the price of the tokens makes sense, as well as the company’s financial ability.
The company would release a report before launching the project, she said.
If things go smoothly, the credits could be recognized by the Environmental Protection Administration, she added.
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people