The chairman of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Wellington Koo, has reportedly confirmed that the commission is drafting national standards for initial coin offerings (ICOs). The FSC aims “to make virtual tokens as easy to invest in as stocks and just as liquid,” the Taipei Times reported on Oct. 23.
At a finance committee meeting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator William Tseng asked Koo whether the government would regulate ICOs. Tseng pointed out that 127 ICO whitepapers worldwide were found last year to be fake, the publication described, adding that 80 whitepapers were found to be inaccurate as of April. The legislator also quoted findings from Satis Group showing that 81 percent of ICOs have been identified as scams.
In May, China’s National Committee of Experts on the Internet Financial Security Technology, a Chinese government-backed industry organization, said it found 421 fake cryptocurrencies. Independently, the Wall Street Journal analyzed 1,450 ICOs and “found 271 with red flags that include plagiarized investor documents, promises of guaranteed returns and missing or fake executive teams.”