Cryptocurrency exchange MaiCoin Ltd (現代財富科技) is planning an initial public offering (IPO) on Taiwan Stock Exchange’s Taiwan Innovation Board (TIB) in the next one or two years, it said.
If realized, the plan would make MaiCoin the nation’s first crypto firm to go public.
The company on Wednesday signed on SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) as its securities underwriter.
Photo: CNA
The reason for going public is to connect with retail investors and formalize the firm’s position on domestic capital markets, as it would be monitored by regulators and disclose financial information, MaiCoin CEO Alex Liu (劉世偉) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.
MaiCoin is Taiwan’s first cryptocurrency exchange to submit an anti-money laundering compliance statement to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Liu said.
It has been active in corporate governance, and its listing would help enhance investors’ awareness and confidence in the firm, he said.
The TIB is the best place for MaiCoin, as the board emphasizes innovation and is friendly to companies with novel business models, Liu said.
Although the TIB places strict requirements on investors — it is open only to institutional investors and retail investors with two years of experience in stock trading and net assets of more than NT$5 million (US$164,144) — MaiCoin is not concerned about the requirement, Liu said.
“This is the beginning. We believe that the TIB, as it develops, will lower the threshold for investors as its South Korean counterpart has done,” he said.
An IPO would mark a new beginning for MaiCoin to enable digital assets, such as cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens, to enter mainstream society, the company said.
MaiCoin this year started to allow users to trade with US dollars. It has about 1 million accounts and the largest market share in crypto trading in Taiwan, the company said.
It would focus on crypto payment solutions to expand the application of cryptocurrencies, it said.
The FSC, which first implemented regulations on the cryptocurrency business in 2019, yesterday said that it would announce nine more rules governing information disclosure by exchanges, asset management by clients, and the management of “cold” and “hot” wallets.
As cryptocurrency firms do not need a license, it is not known how many operate in the nation, but 25 have reported their activities to the FSC, it said.
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by