Recently, I noticed a quite interesting mess in Taiwan’s crypto-education scene. At the end of last year, Taiwan’s three major securities and futures associations jointly issued a warning, singling out a company called “Crypto Hu Shi,” saying that it has not been legally registered and has not filed an anti-money-laundering prevention statement with the Financial Supervisory Commission, and therefore is not allowed to operate a virtual currency platform to solicit business.

The name “Crypto Hu Shi” is well known in the community. According to past interviews, they started providing crypto investment education in 2020, and later even launched what they claimed was “the first crypto-world educational cram school,” offering spot classes, grid trading classes, and small-coin groups, and even one-on-one tutoring sessions that directly provide recommendations for cryptocurrency investment.

After being warned, “Crypto Hu Shi” responded on Facebook, saying that it is a “legally tax-paying educational consulting provider,” not a coin dealer and not a virtual currency platform. They also said that peer trade associations are not government organizations, and their announcements have no legal effect. It sounds quite reasonable, but the question is: does this claim hold up?

After looking at relevant court precedents, I found that things might not be that simple. If a company like “Crypto Hu Shi” privately sets up investment courses and charges tuition fees, it may violate the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act. In Taiwan, there have been cases in the past where unlicensed wealth-management courses were found illegal by the courts, and some people were sentenced as a result.

More importantly, if certain cryptocurrencies are recognized as “securities” under Taiwan law, then providing investment advice must comply with the Securities and Exchange Act regulations. If investment advice is provided in exchange for fees charged to students without approval from the competent authorities, technically this counts as “illegal operation of a securities investment advisory business.”

I checked the Commercial Registry information for “Yang Ji Co., Ltd.” (the company name of Crypto Hu Shi). Indeed, it does not have the license for “H304011 Securities Investment Advisory Business.” This means that legally they are not qualified to operate such a business at all.

So the key point in this case is not whether “Crypto Hu Shi” pays taxes or whether it is an educational consulting provider; rather, it comes down to this: whether the act of providing crypto investment advice and charging tuition fees is compliant under Taiwan’s legal framework. Based on existing case law, this gray area may be darker than people might imagine.