The "Taiwan VASP registration system" is officially launched! Unregistered virtual asset services will face the heaviest penalty for 2 years.

The Legislative Yuan passed the amendment to the Money Laundering Prevention Act in July this year, stipulating that virtual asset service providers (VASPs) must complete registration before they can provide services. The Financial Supervisory Commission announced on Wednesday that the ‘VASP Registration System’ will officially launch one month ahead of schedule on November 30th; those who operate without registration approval can face up to 2 years of imprisonment.

The Financial Supervisory Commission pointed out in its statement that the amendment to Article 6 of the ‘Money Laundering Prevention Act,’ which was announced in July this year, will take effect on November 30. Service providers of virtual assets (VASPs) who have not completed the Money Laundering prevention registration will not be allowed to provide virtual asset services; overseas operators who have not completed the registration of company or branch establishment and Money Laundering prevention registration will also not be allowed to provide virtual asset services in Taiwan. Violators will face criminal liability of up to 2 years.

In other words, currently the declaration of compliance with the Money Laundering Prevention Act has not yet been completed, but operators who intend to engage in virtual asset businesses can register with the Financial Supervisory Commission after the regulations take effect, and can only engage in virtual asset businesses after completing the registration process.

As for the 26 VASP platform operators who have already completed the Money Laundering Prevention Act compliance statement, the FSC has set transitional provisions, which require them to ‘apply for registration’ with the FSC no later than March 31 next year and ‘complete registration’ by September 30 next year; if they fail to complete the registration by the deadline and continue to operate, they may face a maximum sentence of less than 2 years in prison or a fine of up to 5 million yuan.

According to earlier reports, the biggest difference between the ‘compliance statement’ and the ‘registration system’ is that the former does not specify the specific qualification requirements for operators, while the latter will specify qualification requirements such as capital, security, personnel, etc.

In addition, the original virtual asset industry management was previously carried out through ‘administrative penalties’, and those who failed to complete legal compliance statements in the past were caught and only needed to be fined; but after the amendment of the ‘Money Laundering Prevention Act’, it will be criminalized, and operating virtual asset business without registration will be subject to criminal liability.

The “Taiwan VASP Registration System” is officially launched! Virtual asset service providers not registered are subject to the heaviest penalty for 2 years. This article was first published on “Blocktempo”.