Taiwan's FSC Drafts NT$300 Million Capital Floor for Stablecoin Issuers

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission has drafted stablecoin rules that require nonbank issuers to hold at least NT$300 million (about US$9.4 million) in paid-in capital, according to a November 3 FSC press release. The draft package also mandates one-to-one currency pegs, full fair-value reserve backing, and anti-money-laundering obligations, and it opens a 40-day public comment window once formally gazetted.

The answer, in Taipei's telling, is balance-sheet weight, audits, and the ability to freeze tokens on official order.

What does the FSC draft actually require?

The FSC has prepared three instruments: a draft Stablecoin Issuance Permit and Management Regulations, plus amendments to the Regulations Governing Anti-Money Laundering of Financial Institutions and to bank AML/CFT internal-control rules. The drafts will be gazetted and posted on the FSC website for comment under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Eligible applicants fall into three buckets:

• Banks may apply.
• Companies invested in by a financial holding company or a bank may apply.
• The FSC may announce other eligible entities later.

Nonbank issuers face the sharpest gate. Beyond the NT$300 million paid-in floor, they must complete a public offering and operate a dedicated business limited to stablecoin issuance and redemption. That charter narrows what a licensed issuer can be: a redemption machine, not a diversified crypto venture.

What can be issued, and under what conditions?

The draft limits tokens to the New Taiwan dollar or a single foreign currency, tracked one-to-one. Issuers must verify the identity of subscribers and redeemers before executing those trades. Reserve assets at fair value must at least match tokens in circulation — a market-marked test, not a hopeful book value.

Issuers must commission regular CPA audits. They must build internal controls, business-continuity procedures, and information-security systems. They must restrict transfers or dispositions quickly when competent authorities lawfully order it. They must file financial and business data with both the FSC and the Central Bank, and meet prescribed public disclosure content and frequency.

On AML, the FSC plans to designate stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under Article 5, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 18 of the Money Laundering Control Act. The full FI AML rulebook would then apply. That places the stablecoin regime inside Taiwan's broader crypto regulation stack rather than in a token-only side aisle.

What does this change for would-be issuers?

Capital is not the peg; reserves are. But the NT$300 million floor, the public-offering duty, and the issuance-only charter raise the cost of showing up at all, filtering thin shells before the reserve test even begins. CPA audits and Central Bank reporting add a second clock on whether the fair-value match still holds.

The freeze-and-restrict language sends the other signal. A licensed Taiwanese issuer is expected to move fast when authorities order a block — closer to a regulated payments instrument than an open bearer token nobody can pause.

None of this is live law yet. The Virtual Asset Service Act was promulgated on July 22, 2026, but its effective date still sits with the Executive Yuan. The FSC says the stablecoin package will take effect in step with that Act after comments are collected. Comments run 40 days from the day after formal announcement.

Until then, the capital floor, peg limits, and AML designation remain draft policy, not licensing reality. What the draft does settle is the shape of the bar: seven-figure capital, a one-currency peg, full fair-value cover, and a financial institution's compliance stack. Issuers and their counsel will be watching the gazette posting and the Executive Yuan's effective-date decision to know when the clock starts.