Taiwan Cryptocurrency Industry Report: Holding Rate Breaks 62%, How Are Investors Profiting?

Taiwan’s cryptocurrency industry report shows that the holding rate will reach a record high of 62.7% in 2025, with 82.7% of holders making profits. The Financial Supervisory Commission submitted the draft of the “Virtual Asset Management Act” to the Executive Yuan in June, establishing a licensing system and classification management. The Central Bank and the Hakka Affairs Council are promoting the Hakka Coin pilot, issuing 280 million yuan to test retail CBDC. Four private banks have applied for custody services, and Taiwan Mobile’s TWEX is open to the public.

2025 Major Policy Breakthroughs Reshape the Industry

The Taiwan cryptocurrency industry report indicates that 2025 is the “Year of Compliance” moving from the periphery to the core. The first major breakthrough is the review of the “Virtual Asset Management Act.” In June, the FSC submitted the draft of the VASP law to the Executive Yuan, establishing the regulatory logic of a “licensing system” and “classification and grading management.” The law divides virtual asset service providers into four types: virtual asset exchanges, trading platforms, transfer agents, and custodians, each with different compliance obligations and capital requirements.

Core provisions include customer asset segregation, stablecoin reserve requirements, and market manipulation prevention mechanisms. The customer asset segregation clause explicitly states that exchanges are not allowed to use customer fiat and virtual currencies for investments; even if the exchange fails, customers can still retrieve their assets. This is the most important safeguard following the malicious collapse of FTX. Stablecoin issuers must deposit sufficient reserves on a 1:1 basis to ensure full redemption capability.

The second major breakthrough is the “ice-breaking” in the banking sector. In April, four large private banks—CTBC Bank, Cathay United Bank, KGI Bank, and Union Bank—formally submitted applications to the FSC to pilot virtual asset custody services, breaking a decade-long taboo in the banking industry against cryptocurrencies. The FSC plans to announce the first approval list by the end of June. Bank-level custody services can significantly reduce private key security risks and attract high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. The potential market size exceeds NT$1 trillion.

The third major breakthrough is CBDC moving from research to daily life. In July 2025, the Hakka Affairs Council, the Ministry of Digital Development, and the Central Bank jointly launched the “Hakka Coin” project, issuing 280,000 units, each with a face value of NT$1,000, totaling NT$280 million. This is Taiwan’s first large-scale retail CBDC application, integrating 17 partner banks and the TWQR common payment standard, with a de-identification design to protect user privacy. The Hakka Coin demonstrates the feasibility of a two-layer architecture and lays the foundation for the future official issuance of digital NT dollars.

Reasons for the Record High Profit Rate Among Investors

According to reports from Far Eastern Bank and Dynamic Zone, 82.7% of holders are in profit, an increase of nearly 26.4 percentage points from 56.3% in 2023. Behind this astonishing profit rate are three main reasons. First, “holder-led” behavior has replaced “speculator-led” behavior. Profitable investors tend to hold long-term (average holding time of 2.8 years vs. 1.2 years for losers), reducing selling pressure and creating a positive cycle of price stability.

Second, the market’s main force is shifting to generations with a solid economic foundation. Generation Y (27-42 years old) accounts for 46.1%, becoming the main market force. This generation has stable income and investment experience, adopting medium- to long-term allocation strategies. Generation X (43-58 years old) accounts for 35.3%, with higher average investment amounts but lower participation rates, indicating huge potential. The top five occupational distributions are technology (20.5%), services (12.4%), manufacturing (12.3%), finance (10.3%), and self-employed (9.8%), breaking the stereotype that “crypto is only for young college students.”

Third, trust in compliant platforms has increased. With the implementation of anti-money laundering declaration systems, investors prefer to use compliant platforms to avoid asset freezing or platform跑路 risks. 26% of holders have invested over NT$1 million, and 4% over NT$10 million. Such large sums only flow into highly trusted platforms.

Key Data from Taiwan Cryptocurrency Industry Report

Holding Rate: surged from 34.2% in 2021 to 62.7% in 2025, an 83% increase over three years

Profit Rate: 82.7% are in profit, with 4.3% earning over 10 times, and 12.1% earning 5-10 times

Generation Distribution: Generation Y (27-42) accounts for 46.1%, becoming the main force; Generation X (43-58) accounts for 35.3%, representing a potential blue ocean

Dual Challenges of Fraud and Taxation

The Taiwan cryptocurrency industry report reveals that from January to August 2025, the total financial losses from investment scams nationwide reached NT$34.7 billion. Due to the anonymity and cross-border transfer convenience of virtual currencies, they have become the preferred money laundering tools for scam groups. In 2025, a large number of scams combined with AI deepfake technology emerged, impersonating celebrities to promote fake crypto investment platforms. The FSC issued fines totaling NT$7.02 million to six operators that failed to implement anti-money laundering measures; five of them exited the market due to inability to bear compliance costs.

Tax audit capabilities have significantly improved. The Ministry of Finance uses a NT$500,000 reporting threshold for AI cross-checking, increasing detected underreporting from NT$129 million in 2024 to an estimated NT$250 million in 2025. According to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, banks and exchanges must report single withdrawals exceeding NT$500,000 to the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The bureau’s database is linked to the Ministry of Finance’s tax center. Additionally, Taiwan uses AI big data analysis for tax cross-checking.

Investors need to distinguish between “domestic income” and “overseas income” for reporting. Taiwanese exchanges apply progressive tax rates of 5%-40% integrated into total comprehensive income, while foreign exchanges include personal basic income (AMT) at 20%, but only if the household overseas income exceeds NT$1 million. It is recommended to keep all transaction records and use tax software like Koinly or CoinTracker to automatically calculate cost basis and taxable income.