Crypto & Digital Assets · Taiwan
Is crypto legal in Taiwan? Rules & regulation (2026)
Taiwan shaded by its crypto & digital assets status
Crypto is developing in Taiwan.
FrameworkVirtual Asset Service Act (passed by Legislative Yuan 30 June 2026, commencement to be set by Executive Yuan) supplementing Money Laundering Control Act (2024 amendment) and existing FSC/Securities and Exchange Act rules for security tokens; overseen by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), with the Central Bank co-approving stablecoin issuers and the Ministry of Finance handling tax
Taiwan is transitioning from a patchwork of AML-registration, sectoral securities-law and tax rules to a dedicated crypto regime. The Legislative Yuan passed the Virtual Asset Service Act on 30 June 2026, giving the FSC sole licensing authority over seven categories of VASP and imposing dual-approval and 100% reserve requirements on stablecoin issuers, but the Act's commencement date is still to be set by the Executive Yuan, and existing platforms have a 12-month application / 21-month full-approval transition window.
Key points
The Legislative Yuan cleared the Virtual Asset Service Act on 30 June 2026 in a third reading; the FSC has said the effective date will be set separately by the Executive Yuan, so the current legal baseline remains AML registration under the Money Laundering Control Act.
Seven categories of VASP (exchange, trading platform, transfer, custody, underwriting, lending and a catch-all) must obtain an FSC licence; unauthorised operation is punishable by up to 7 years' imprisonment and NT$100 million in fines, with fraud/market-manipulation offences carrying 3–10 years and up to NT$200 million.
Stablecoin issuers need consent from both the Central Bank of the ROC (Taiwan) and the FSC, must hold 100% reserves at domestic financial institutions in trust, cannot pay yield, must publish audits, and reserve assets are ring-fenced from any bankruptcy estate.
A 2019 FSC ruling classifies STO tokens as 'securities' under the SEA; only Taiwan-incorporated non-listed issuers can offer dividend/debt tokens, issuances up to NT$30 million use FSC-licensed dealer platforms via TPEX, and natural-person subscriptions are capped at NT$300,000, largely restricted to professional investors.
Under existing FSC guidance and the new Act, VASPs must segregate customer crypto and fiat from proprietary assets; custodians meeting information-security standards must hold at least 70% of customer crypto in cold wallets (80% if they do not), with annual CPA reports and bank/trust arrangements for fiat.
The Ministry of Finance treats crypto as a 'virtual commodity'; profits are 'property transaction income' under Article 14(1)(7) of the Income Tax Act with no securities-tax exemption, taxation is triggered on conversion to fiat, and foreign-sourced income (e.g., withdrawals from offshore exchanges) falls under the Alternative Minimum Tax with a NT$1 million reporting threshold.
Timeline - major decisions & events
Taiwan's Cabinet approved the FSC-drafted Virtual Asset Services Act and transmitted it to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation, the country's first dedicated crypto statute, covering VASP licensing, capital requirements, asset segregation, stablecoin issuance approval, and criminal penalties of up to seven years for unlicensed stablecoin issuers.
Executive Yuan, R.O.C. — Press Release ↗The FSC released the draft Virtual Asset Services Act proposing a comprehensive licensing regime for VASPs and stablecoin issuers modelled on the EU, UK, Japan, and Hong Kong frameworks; the public comment period closed 24 May 2025 and the draft was submitted to the Executive Yuan in June 2025.
Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) ↗The 30 November 2024 deadline under the July 2024 Money Laundering Control Act amendment required all VASPs to complete FSC AML registration before providing services; non-compliance carries up to two years imprisonment and NT$5 million in fines. Only 23 exchanges had registered by the deadline.
Lee Tsai & Partners (citing FSC) ↗Taiwan enacted amendments to the Money Laundering Control Act requiring every VASP to obtain FSC AML registration before commencing operations and compelling offshore VASPs to establish a local legal presence in Taiwan, a major step from voluntary guidelines to enforceable obligations.
Executive Yuan, R.O.C. — Cabinet Passes Draft Amendments to Money Laundering Control Act ↗The Taiwan Virtual Asset Service Providers Association was formally established with FSC support to issue binding self-regulatory codes; by January 2025 it had promulgated seven codes covering AML/CFT, virtual asset listing/delisting, customer protection, cybersecurity, anti-fraud reporting, and asset segregation.
Lee Tsai & Partners (citing FSC) ↗Taiwan's first dedicated crypto AML/CTF regulations entered into force, requiring VASP operators to implement KYC procedures, maintain transaction records, and file large-transaction and suspicious-transaction reports with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau within two business days of approval.
FSC Laws and Regulations Retrieving System ↗Amid the 2017 ICO boom, the FSC reissued its virtual-commodity classification and warned the public of speculative risks, while signalling that tokens meeting securities criteria would be regulated under the Securities and Exchange Act, laying the conceptual groundwork for the 2019 STO framework.
Library of Congress — Regulatory Approaches to Cryptoassets: Taiwan ↗Taiwan - other topics
Crypto & Digital Assets in other countries
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