• Wellington Koo, chairman of the FSC has stated that regulations are long overdue regarding ICOs
• The new regulations will likely be introduced in mid-2019
• These regulations differ from those for cryptocurrency trading which are already in place

Taiwan’s securities regulatory agency has announced that the running of ICOs will be made much easier. The comments came from Wellington Koo, the chairman of the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) who said that a concrete regulatory framework will soon be put in place.

These regulations will enable ICOs to become ‘as liquid and safe as retail stocks’. This news has been well received by investors who are waiting to see what the next few months bring.

Need for clear regulations

According to reports coming from the Taipei times, the regulations will be in place most likely from June 2019. The report also claims that the FSC is in the process of putting together a review process as well as defining what types of ICOs will be eligible for issuance.  

This is a smart move considering the challenges the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States has been facing, with a recent revelation of how they have suspended several ICOs this year alone.

Koo has also stated that there will be exemptions for tokens and currencies that are used as a means of exchange at certain establishments and retailers such as airlines and supermarkets.

Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator, Willian Tseng spoke on the issue before Koo did and explained that what facilitated the need for the regulations is the fraud that is commonplace in the industry.

“The more we regulate, the more this new economic behavior wanes,” he said.

When the relations are put in place, he added, there will be less fraud and investors will have access to better deals.

Clearing up confusion

While the new frameworks signal good news for those in the blockchain industry, Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Bureau Director-General, Tsai Li-ling, has stated that they will not be the same as regulations that deal with cryptocurrencies but will be separate.

Tsai explained that the government of Taiwan already has frameworks in place for the trading of currencies as that instead, this new frameworks will focus on ICOs because “people often confuse an ICO with the trading of cryptocurrencies”

These types of government regulations are not only beneficial in that they prevent fraud but also because they are ‘no-harm’ laws, meaning that they do not seek to stop the progress of the blockchain industry which is becoming more widely accepted in Taiwan.

“The commission has no intention of curbing the creativity and productivity associated with cryptocurrencies if they are not used as securities.” Koo stated.