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 CITIC—will be the first to issue stablecoins. Although the Taiwan Dollar stablecoin (TWDT-ETH) had previously faded out of the market, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) expects that, driven by supply-chain payments, real demand for Taiwan Dollar stablecoins will emerge.

Six Taiwanese banks are a potential first-batch list for stablecoin issuance

The draft of Taiwan’s “Virtual Asset Service Act” has been approved by the Executive Yuan. Although it has not yet passed the third reading in the Legislative Yuan, the FSC is already actively drafting subsidiary regulations. The initial plan is to allow only domestic financial institutions to issue stablecoins, giving multiple operators the chance to jump in.

According to a report by Economic Daily News, there are 6 banks rumored to be potential first issuers of stablecoins: CTBC Bank, Cathay United Bank, Taishin Bank, KGI Bank, Union Bank, and Taipei Fubon Bank.

The strategies of these 6 banks in the blockchain and virtual asset-related fields are as follows:

1. CTBC Bank: Approved by the FSC to pilot virtual asset custody services. In the first phase, it focuses on Bitcoin and ether, managing them through cold wallets and private-key sharding technology. It also previously publicly recruited blockchain engineers in 2025.
2. Cathay United Bank: Approved to pilot virtual asset custody services, targeting high-net-worth individual clients. It is also participating in the FSC’s RWA tokenization working group, and plans to test on-chain bond issuance.
3. Taishin Bank: Currently receiving guidance for custody services. Recently, it has collaborated with the Taiwan Exchange HOYA BIT to provide Taiwan Dollar trust services, offering 24/7 deposit and withdrawal flows.
4. KGI Bank: After obtaining pilot qualification, it partnered with Taiwanese compliant trading platforms such as MaiCoin and BitoPro, transferring some assets to the bank’s cold wallet custody. It previously launched the “KGI Coin Enjoy Card,” which offers rewards redeemable for cryptocurrencies when using the card.
5. Union Bank: In addition to being approved to pilot custody services, it 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 Virtual Asset Exchange” through Taiwan Mobile, and Fubon provides trust custody and cold-wallet technology mechanisms.

Besides the above banks, Taiwan’s government-owned banks, “First Bank” and “Hua Nan Bank,” have also told the Commercial Times that they have a strong interest in stablecoins; the chairman of Yushan Financial Holdings has also stated that the company will not be absent from the stablecoin and tokenization markets.

In addition, the strategic distribution partnership between blockchain settlement infrastructure provider Capital Layer and Taiwan’s largest systems integrator DunYang Technology has also been viewed as part of the stablecoin rollout.

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

On the other hand, years ago, Taiwan’s third-party payment provider Green World Fintech Service launched CryptoDT blockchain financial services and issued the Taiwan Dollar stablecoin (TWDT-ETH). It adopted Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard. Each token is pegged 1:1 to the value of the Taiwan dollar. The circulating TWDT-ETH represents that 1 yuan is guaranteed in the trust account; the total tokens equal the trust balance. The company regularly publishes balances and accepts audits verified by certified accountants.

Recently, tech YouTuber Qu Bo Technology Classroom, who has repeatedly said that “stablecoins are stored-value cards” and criticized stablecoins as a tech hype promoted by crypto players, said with respect to the time, they actually praised TWDT-ETH as “Taiwan’s first stablecoin,” and said they were very much looking forward to the future development of blockchain in Taiwan.

Image source: Qu Bo Technology Classroom page. The Taiwan Dollar stablecoin issued by Green World Fintech Service was regarded as Taiwan’s first “Taiwan Dollar stablecoin” at the time.

However, at the time TWDT-ETH lacked market demand and real use cases. It was quickly delisted by partnering exchanges and quietly exited the market. With Taiwan’s domestic special-purpose legislation becoming clearer over time, and international attention on stablecoins increasing, whether Green World will bring it back, or whether other payment providers will jump in to grab this opportunity, is worth watching.

Will Taiwan’s stablecoins be ready in 2026?

Under the current draft provisions, stablecoin issuers must set aside proper reserves of the fiat currency received, and they are not allowed to distribute interest or rewards—this also raises questions about how issuers will make profits in the future.

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

Deputy Chairperson of the FSC, Zhuang Xiuyuan, previously also revealed that some Taiwanese importers and exporters have already begun making actual payments and settlements using stablecoins. As the number of stablecoins accumulated by traders gradually increases, they will inevitably seek to connect with traditional financial institutions.

After TWDT-ETH’s failure for years, is the market truly ready to welcome Taiwan’s stablecoin? Zhuang Xiuyuan said she is optimistic that driven by supply-chain payment demand, domestic demand for Taiwan Dollar stablecoins will emerge. At this stage, the role of financial institutions is to provide seamless integration between fiat currency and stablecoins.

Further Reading:
MegaBank stablecoin tests spark controversy! Commentary and experts on the “Nobel Prize-level discourse” angle—responses from Yu Zhean and the Crypto Editor to the latest 2026 “Virtual Asset Service Act” draft summary: stablecoins, licenses, and penalties explained