The Economic Daily News states that "these 6 banks" are expected to be the first to issue stablecoins! What are the business opportunities for stablecoins in Taiwan?

Taiwan’s “Virtual Asset Service Act” is in progress, and the market is optimistic that six banks, including CTBC, may be the first to issue stablecoins. Although Taiwan’s first stablecoin, Taiwan Dollar (TWDT), withdrew quietly in the past, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is optimistic that, driven by supply chain payments, demand for New Taiwan Dollar stablecoins will emerge.

Six Taiwanese banks are potential issuers of stablecoins

The draft of Taiwan’s “Virtual Asset Service Act” has been approved by the Executive Yuan, though it has not yet passed the third reading in the Legislative Yuan. The FSC is actively drafting subordinate regulations, initially planning to allow only domestic financial institutions to issue stablecoins, encouraging multiple operators to try.

According to the “Economic Daily News,” six banks are rumored to be the first to issue stablecoins: CTBC Bank, Cathay United Bank, Taishin Bank, KGI Bank, Union Bank, and Taipei Fubon Bank.

The arrangements of these six banks in blockchain and virtual asset-related fields are summarized as follows:

1. CTBC Bank: Approved by the FSC to pilot virtual asset custody services, initially focusing on Bitcoin and Ethereum, managed through cold wallets and private key sharding technology, and previously recruited blockchain engineers publicly in 2025.
2. Cathay United Bank: Approved to pilot virtual asset custody, targeting high-net-worth individual clients, and participating in the FSC’s RWA tokenization group, planning to trial on-chain bond issuance.
3. Taishin Bank: Currently undergoing custody service guidance, recently collaborating with Taiwan Exchange HOYA BIT to offer New Taiwan Dollar trust services, providing 24/7 deposit and withdrawal services.
4. KGI Bank: After obtaining pilot qualification, partnering with Taiwan’s legitimate trading platforms MaiCoin and BitoPro, transferring some assets into bank cold wallets for custody, and previously launching the “KGI Coin Rewards Card” that offers crypto rewards for card transactions.
5. Union Bank: Besides being approved for custody services, it has also acquired about 9.67% equity in MaiCoin through investment, strengthening its participation in Taiwan’s crypto market.
6. Fubon Bank: Fubon established “TWEX Taiwan Big Virtual Asset Exchange” through Taiwan Mobile, with trust custody and cold wallet technology provided by Fubon.

In addition to these banks, Taiwan’s state-owned banks “First Commercial Bank” and “Hua Nan Bank” also expressed strong interest in stablecoins to the “Commercial Times.” Yushan Financial Holdings’ chairman has also stated that the institution will not miss out on the stablecoin and tokenization markets.

Furthermore, blockchain enterprise settlement infrastructure provider Capital Layer and Taiwan’s largest system integrator, DunYang Technology, are engaged in strategic distribution partnerships, seen as part of their stablecoin deployment plans.

In 2018, Taiwan’s first “Taiwan Dollar stablecoin” quietly exited

Years ago, Taiwan’s third-party payment provider Green World Fintech Service launched CryptoDT blockchain financial services and issued Taiwan Dollar (TWDT-ETH), using Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard. Each token was pegged 1:1 to the New Taiwan Dollar, representing trust account backing with 1 NT dollar guaranteed per token, with total tokens equal to the trust balance, and regularly published balances verified by auditors.

Recently, the YouTuber Tech Classroom, known for criticizing stablecoins as “storage cards,” once openly called stablecoins a “tech hype.” Back then, they actually praised Taiwan Dollar stablecoin as “Taiwan’s first stablecoin,” and expressed great anticipation for blockchain development in Taiwan.

Image source: Tech Classroom Facebook page. The Taiwan Dollar stablecoin launched by Green World Fintech Service was regarded as Taiwan’s first “NTD stablecoin” at the time.

However, Taiwan Dollar stablecoin lacked market demand and practical use cases, quickly delisted from partner exchanges, and quietly exited. As Taiwan’s legal framework becomes clearer and international attention on stablecoins increases, whether Green World will restart or attract other payment providers to jump into this market remains to be seen.

Will Taiwan be ready for stablecoins in 2026?

According to current draft regulations, stablecoin issuers must maintain reserves of fiat currency received, and are not allowed to pay interest or rewards, raising questions about future profit models for issuers.

Insiders told the “Economic Daily News” that the purpose of banks issuing stablecoins is to further explore opportunities in blockchain finance and real-world asset tokenization (RWA).

Deputy Chairperson of the FSC, Zhuang Xiuyuan, previously revealed that some Taiwanese import-export traders have already begun actual transactions using stablecoins. As the amount of stablecoins held by traders gradually increases, they will inevitably seek connections with traditional financial institutions.

After years of failure of Taiwan Dollar stablecoin, is the market truly ready for Taiwan’s stablecoin? Zhuang Xiuyuan stated that she is optimistic that, driven by supply chain payment demands, domestic demand for New Taiwan Dollar stablecoins will emerge, and the role of financial institutions is to provide seamless integration between fiat and stablecoins.

Further reading:
MegaBank tests stablecoin issuance, sparking controversy! Blockchain experts mock: Nobel Prize-level discourse, responses from Yu Zhe’an and Crypto Editor in Chief.
2026 latest: Summary of the Virtual Asset Service Act draft — stablecoins, licenses, penalties explained.