The Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission will announce the "Guiding Principles for the Management of Virtual Asset Platforms" in September and establish self-regulatory standards through industry players. Lian News visited Taiwan’s major compliance exchanges: ACE, Maicoin, BitTouch, and HOYA BIT for their opinions, and learned about their views on the "Financial Supervisory Commission Guiding Principles", "Association Self-Discipline" and "Overseas Industry Competition."
(Background information: Exclusive | Interpretation of the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission’s draft guiding principles)
MaiCoin/MAX: Overseas players should have the same standards in Taiwan and are worried about the inefficiency of the association’s consensus
Chain News interviewed MaiCoin Group about the pros and cons of the guiding principles and their views on competition among overseas players.
MaiCoin Group said: "We are still optimistic about the guiding principles. The Financial Supervisory Commission has always been from the perspective of protecting investors, which is no different from MaiCoin's operating principles. We hope that both local and overseas VASP operators will operate in Taiwan. Only by having the same consensus standards can we achieve the goal of mainstreaming the cryptocurrency industry.”
MaiCoin Group also mentioned the challenges of establishing an association and self-regulatory regulations in the future: "But we are indeed worried that after the Financial Supervisory Commission issued the draft guiding principles, it required VASP operators to establish an "association" and jointly formulate self-regulatory regulations. It sounds like it allows the industry to express their opinions. There is space, but currently the scale of the industry is different. Whether we can reach a consensus in a short period of time, review each other, and raise risk control standards without causing panic or poor perception among the public, this should be the next stage. challenge."
ACE: Overseas non-compliant platforms are not strictly inspected, and recovery of high compliance costs is slow
ACE Exchange also expressed its view to Chain News that "standards should be consistent":
"Currently, the competent authorities have not strictly restricted the public from using unimplemented overseas VASP platforms. From the perspective of "protecting user asset security", there must be high asset security risks. For overseas VASP operators interested in landing in Taiwan, ACE still stands on the side of ACE supports the position, but at the same time, ACE also hopes that the competent authorities will at least be consistent with the compliance requirements for overseas VASP operators, the review standards and density of domestic VASP operators, and strictly restrict unestablished and high-risk overseas platforms from operating in Taiwan. Behavior, in order to truly implement the goal of protecting user assets and improve Taiwan’s virtual asset trading environment.”
ACE Exchange is happy to see the formation of a self-regulatory association. The group said that it is good to have a clear direction and proceed step by step. A state where you can understand what can and cannot be done, and have room to coordinate with supervision. However, they are also worried that local companies have to pay high costs to comply with regulations, but they still have too few businesses to do, and it is not easy to recover the expenses. Compared with unrestricted overseas companies, it is difficult to compete.
BITO: Regulation helps market confidence, and overseas players have a basis for implementation
Bito Group told Lianxin: "Equal emphasis must be placed on the supervision and development of cryptocurrency. Supervision is not a stranglehold, but a guarantee for the public and increases market confidence and stability. Although supervision will bring certain consequences to local players To reduce legal compliance and information security costs, BitTool has always been actively involved in the formulation of VASP guiding principles and self-regulatory standards. It has already established many internal audits and internal controls, fraud management, transaction patterns, etc., and related supporting measures and systems have gradually been During the adjustment and implementation, we look forward to making Taiwan’s encryption industry more transparent and secure after the new framework is formulated.”
Regarding competition from overseas players, the BitTool Group stated that after the collapse of FTX, Taiwanese users’ awareness of digital assets and regulatory requirements have increased significantly. From the perspective of protecting users, BitTool considers legal compliance to be the most basic requirement. , also shows the responsibility and commitment of the industry to operating in the local market. Once a clear new framework for cryptocurrency is formulated, domestic and overseas players will have something to follow, deepening international cooperation is just around the corner, and Taiwan has the opportunity to become an important base for blockchain development in Asia.
HOYA BIT: Helps operators allocate resources and provide compliant products and services
Exchange HOYA BIT said that the Financial Supervisory Commission’s guidelines for virtual assets are a big plus for local players. HOYA BIT Exchange maintains its full support attitude, mainly because this principle has pointed out a clear development direction for the industry. With a clear understanding of the government's policy orientation, businesses can allocate resources more accurately and create products and services that comply with government regulations. This move will not only prevent industry players from going in the wrong direction, but will also help provide a more sound development environment for the entire virtual asset industry.
Facing competition from overseas players, HOYA BIT believes: "Local institutions that are strictly regulated by the government have significantly higher security standards. For example, Taiwan's exchanges are required to have a bank's Taiwan dollar trust account to protect users' Taiwan dollar assets. We sincerely hope that the government We can work closely with local industry players to further strengthen publicity to the public and encourage them to choose local exchanges that are regulated by the government, thereby more securely protecting people’s assets.” However, HOYA BIT welcomes exchanges from around the world to Taiwan. Once implemented, international exchanges will be better than local exchanges in Taiwan regardless of resources or history. Of course, it will also have a great impact on the survival of local exchanges in Taiwan. This part also depends on whether the government considers supporting Taiwan's local exchanges or allowing the free market to compete freely. As a local exchange, HOYA BIT can only do its best within its capabilities to strive for the retention and trading of Taiwanese users.
This article, exclusive interview｜Taiwan’s regulatory upgrades in September! What do Taiwan’s major compliance exchanges think about trade union self-discipline and competition from overseas players? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.