Taiwan's Virtual Asset Service Act Clears Third Reading: Seven Kinds of Provider, Stablecoin Licensing, No Commencement Date Yet

On June 30, 2026 the plenary session of the Legislative Yuan passed the draft Virtual Asset Service Act (虛擬資產服務法) on its third reading; the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) issued a press release the same day, grouping the main points of the legislation into four: stronger supervision of virtual asset service providers, rules for the issuance and management of stablecoins, prevention of unfair practices in the market, and a transitional period for existing operators. The Act was then promulgated by presidential order (華總一經字第11500067161號), with a promulgation date of July 22, 2026 and 56 articles in full.

This article was checked on September 16, 2026, and what it reads is the FSC's third-reading press release, the regulation page in the FSC's Laws and Regulations Retrieving System, the article-by-article page in the Laws & Regulations Database of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and the list of operators kept by the FSC's Securities and Futures Bureau. This site ran no tests of its own and gives no investment or tax advice; the commencement status and operators' registration status follow whatever the competent authority announces at the time, and where the official documents say nothing this article says that nothing is stated rather than working it out.

Is the Act in force yet? The commencement date is for the Executive Yuan to set

Promulgation is not commencement. Article 56 is a single sentence and reads, in translation: "The date on which this Act comes into force shall be set by the Executive Yuan." On the regulation page in the FSC's Laws and Regulations Retrieving System, a note beside the promulgation date says, again in our translation, that all or some of the articles published this time have not yet come into force; the Laws & Regulations Database says that some or all of the articles of this regulation are not yet effective and that the last effective date is undecided. Those are the states this article read on those two official pages on its check date.

The FSC's own third-reading press release also says that the date on which the Act comes into force will be set separately by the Executive Yuan. When the Executive Yuan will announce that date, and on what conditions, is written neither in article 56 nor in the press release. The FSC says it will continue to work actively on drafting the delegated sub-regulations and will discuss them in line with the supplementary resolution passed by the Legislative Yuan's Finance Committee and the suggestions of individual members; how many sub-regulations there are, and when they will be finished, is not in the press release.

"Undecided" is not a formality. Both of the periods article 55 gives existing operators start, in the words of the Act, after this Act comes into force; no commencement date has been announced, so neither period has begun to run and neither can be converted into a calendar date. When you come across a claim that the Act "starts in such a month", you can go straight back to those two legal-database pages and check the effective status.

The transition for existing operators: the 12 months and the 21 months both run from commencement

What article 55, paragraph 1 provides is this, in translation: a virtual asset service provider that had completed anti-money laundering registration under article 6, paragraph 1 of the Money Laundering Control Act before this Act came into force, or a financial institution that was already providing virtual asset services as prescribed by the competent authority, shall apply to the competent authority for a license within twelve months after this Act comes into force, and shall be licensed by the competent authority and issued a license certificate within twenty-one months after this Act comes into force; one that has not applied to the competent authority for a license by the deadline, or has not been licensed and issued a license certificate, may not continue to carry on virtual asset business.

Article 55, paragraph 2 is a single sentence: "The period in the preceding paragraph for obtaining the license certificate may, where necessary, be extended by three months, on one occasion only." "The period in the preceding paragraph for obtaining the license certificate" is the twenty-one-month one, so the three-month extension hangs on the deadline for obtaining the license certificate, not on the twelve months for applying for a license. The press release only says that it may be extended by 3 months, once only, and does not say which of the periods is extended.

An operator that has not completed anti-money laundering registration is not inside the transition in article 55, paragraph 1. The Act does not say whether an existing operator may carry on business as usual during the transition or what is to happen to customers' assets, and it does not say how an operator that has not obtained a license certificate by the deadline is to wind its service down. The closest thing to it is article 46, paragraphs 3 to 5: where business or finances have deteriorated markedly and the provider cannot pay its debts or there is a risk of harm to customers' interests, the competent authority may prohibit the transfer of assets, or order the provider to transfer its business to another service provider, and may designate a transferee where the provider cannot arrange one itself; the Act does not state whether this applies to the situation at the deadline.

Who has to apply: seven kinds of virtual asset service provider, licensed kind by kind

Article 6, paragraph 1 draws the range first: the virtual asset business carried on under the Act is the business of "providing the following services to others within the territory of Taiwan", and seven items are listed — exchange between virtual assets and the New Taiwan dollar, foreign currencies, or the currencies of mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau; exchange between virtual assets; transfer of virtual assets; custody or management of virtual assets or of the instruments used to control them; issuance or sale of virtual assets; taking transfer of virtual assets with an agreement to return or pay the same or a greater quantity or value of virtual assets; and other virtual asset services approved by the competent authority.

Article 6, paragraph 2 then fixes the kinds of provider by business, seven in all: virtual asset exchange provider, trading platform provider, transfer provider, custodian, underwriter, lending provider, and other virtual asset service providers. Every one of the formal names in the Act carries the words 虛擬資產, virtual asset, while the press release uses the short forms with that prefix dropped. Article 7, paragraph 1 requires a provider to obtain the competent authority's license and be issued a license certificate separately for each of these kinds before it may do business — the license is granted kind by kind.

Article 7, paragraph 3 requires an offshore virtual asset service provider that sets up a branch within the territory of Taiwan to be licensed by the competent authority and issued a license certificate, and paragraph 4 lets a financial institution carry the business on concurrently with the competent authority's license. Article 9 limits the organizational form to a company limited by shares and article 10, paragraph 1 requires the provider's name to state the words 虛擬資產; each of those two articles carries its own proviso. Article 29, paragraph 1 reads: "A virtual asset service provider may not do business unless it joins the trade association." The minimum capital and the operating bond in article 11 are to be set by the competent authority.

Stablecoins: one license, full reserve assets, no interest

Article 3, subparagraph 6 defines a stablecoin as "a virtual asset that represents a link to the value of a single fiat currency or of several, so as to keep its own value stable". Article 34, paragraph 1 provides that "to issue a stablecoin in Taiwan, the issuer shall apply to the competent authority for a license", and paragraph 2 that "before granting the license in the preceding paragraph, the competent authority shall consult the Central Bank and obtain its consent" — one license, granted by the FSC, which may not be granted until the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has consented, rather than one license from each of the two.

Article 36, paragraph 1 provides that a stablecoin issuer shall establish and maintain full reserve assets, held at a financial institution within the country and kept separate and independent from its own property, and that apart from the reserve deposited under paragraph 2 they shall all be placed in trust with a financial institution for safekeeping and periodically audited. That proviso is the part to watch — what is placed in trust is all of the reserve assets once the deposited reserve is taken out, not a hundred percent of them. The "certain amount" and the deposit ratio in paragraph 2 are to be set by the Central Bank in consultation with the competent authority, and the Act states no figures.

Article 37 requires an issuer to issue and redeem at face value and states expressly that "in respect of the stablecoin it issues, it may not pay interest or a return in any form"; it may not refuse a holder's application for redemption either, except where another law or the competent authority provides otherwise. Article 38 provides that where an issuer goes bankrupt the reserve assets do not form part of its bankruptcy estate, and that stablecoin holders have a priority right to be repaid out of those reserve assets.

The Act does not shut out stablecoins issued outside the country across the board. Article 35 provides that where a service provider offers any of the services in article 6, paragraph 1 and a stablecoin is involved, then unless the competent authority provides otherwise it must make sure the stablecoin has been licensed for issuance under article 34, paragraph 1, or has been approved for trading on application to the competent authority, before it may offer the service; the procedure and conditions for approval to trade are to be set separately by the competent authority in consultation with the Central Bank. The Act does not list which stablecoins may be traded in Taiwan.

Before the Act starts: what applies now is the anti-money laundering registration system

Before this Act comes into force, what Taiwan has in force is the anti-money laundering registration system. The page for these operators on the site of the FSC's Securities and Futures Bureau states, in its English version: "In accordance with Article 6, paragraph 1 of the Money Laundering Control Act, any enterprise or person providing virtual asset services must complete anti-money laundering (AML) registration with the central competent authority before offering such services. Those who have not completed AML registration are prohibited from providing virtual asset services, and anyone who does so without registration is subject to criminal liability of up to two years' imprisonment." The Chinese-language page lists operators in three groups, and in the version marked as updated on September 3, 2026 there were 10 that had completed registration, 1 that had itself applied to have its registration revoked, and 18 operators that had earlier completed an AML compliance statement but had not completed registration.

What follows is an example the editors made up, not a test. Suppose someone has assets sitting on a local platform, sees the news of the third reading, and takes it that they will have to move to another platform next month: on the text of the Act, no commencement date has been announced, and what article 55 gives is a transition for existing operators that have completed anti-money laundering registration, not an immediate cut-off. What can be done is to go to that Securities and Futures Bureau page, check which of the three groups the operator being used is listed in, and note the date the page was updated. This site neither compares operators nor recommends any.

Once the Act is in force, a few of its provisions matter more than the rest to an ordinary user: article 18 requires a provider to keep the assets it holds for customers separate and independent from its own property, and provides that on bankruptcy those customer assets do not form part of its bankruptcy estate; article 19 requires the fiat currency customers leave with the provider to be placed in trust or covered by a bank's full performance guarantee; article 20 provides that a provider may not refuse a customer's withdrawal or transfer out of their assets, although it may suspend transactions that are suspected to be unlawful or plainly abnormal. On penalties, a breach of article 42, paragraph 1 or paragraph 4 on misrepresentation and fraud and on manipulation carries, under article 47, paragraph 1, three to ten years' imprisonment and may carry an additional fine of NT$10 million to NT$200 million; carrying on virtual asset business without a license, an offshore operator setting up a branch in the country without a license, or issuing a stablecoin without a license carries up to seven years' imprisonment under article 48 and may carry an additional fine of up to NT$100 million.

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