In view of the increasing number of investors in virtual assets, countries around the world have begun to pay attention to this development. Last year, the Financial Supervisory Commission announced that it would gradually strengthen the management of domestic virtual asset (currency) exchanges and is closely studying domestic virtual asset laws. It is expected to be A draft special law on virtual assets will be launched this year. Before the birth of the special law, in the face of the behavior of the domestic virtual asset market and the Chinese people's views on future market supervision, "Foresight" conducted a "Survey on Virtual Asset Usage Behavior in Taiwan" from May to June 2024, hoping to understand the virtual asset usage behavior in Taiwan. The actual behavior and thoughts of asset users.
This survey adopts an online questionnaire. The survey targets are users who have "invested or held virtual assets for more than 6 months" and "have more than 2 exchange accounts". The survey period is from May 7 to 6, 2024. On March 11, a total of 1,080 valid samples were recovered.
The survey found that in terms of supervision, respondents believed that the aspects that require “strict supervision” the most are fraud prevention and anti-money laundering. In terms of asset allocation, currently the majority of virtual assets are placed on international centralized exchanges. The interviewees hope to avoid excessive restrictions and retain the people's right to choose. They also hope that the government can encourage international exchanges that are willing to cooperate with Taiwan's regulations to establish, rather than completely ban them. This shows that in the face of the emerging virtual asset industry, most people hold the view of "safety but safety". "freedom" attitude.
This survey has three main findings, which are summarized below:
1. Emerging assets entering the growth stage
Virtual assets have become one of the most widely watched and participated investment methods, and are expected to continue to grow in the future. In this survey, it can be seen that domestic virtual asset users have a growing trend in depth of use, awareness and value recognition, and asset allocation. It also shows that virtual assets in Taiwan are moving from the introduction stage to the expansion stage.
1. Use Depth
In this survey, 66% of the respondents have held virtual assets for more than two years. Users who have experienced major market events and the recent bull and bear market cycle have considerable research and experience in the industry and platform. Among the respondents with personal annual income of one million, 50% have more than 3 years of investment experience. A relatively high proportion of IT and self-media practitioners have more than 3 years of experience. Overall, 58% of respondents have more than 5 accounts, showing deep involvement and diversified demand for virtual assets.
2. Cognition and value recognition
More than 50% of the respondents have capital gains (58.1%) as their primary purpose, and 53.4% of the respondents hold virtual assets because they agree with the decentralized concept of blockchain. This shows that users are not only concerned about short-term profits. Also understand and support the core values of the underlying technology. At the same time, 50.3% of the respondents expressed curiosity about this emerging technology and wanted to try novel technology investment tools.
3. Future growth potential
Virtual assets still have great potential for growth in the future. Judging from the survey results, on average, virtual assets account for about 45% of the total financial assets of the respondents, and 60% of the respondents plan to use them in the future. Increasing the allocation of virtual assets in three years will increase the overall proportion from 45% to 54%. Only about 26% of the respondents said they would keep the asset proportion unchanged, reflecting the market's growth expectations for virtual asset investment.
Virtual assets may have passed the initial introduction period and are moving towards a more stable, mature and vigorous growth stage.
2. Safety and liquidity are the first priorities in product selection.
In all financial transactions, whether it is traditional finance or emerging virtual assets, security, good product experience and sufficient liquidity are always one of the top considerations for users.
This survey found that up to 76% of the respondents chose to allocate their main assets in international centralized exchanges, and nearly 60% of the respondents said that they put more than 70% of the total value of virtual assets on these platforms; they chose domestic platforms as The main configuration accounts for only 9%, and the total value placed is mostly less than 50%.
The reasons may be the following three points:
Security is king: 66% of the respondents regard "the platform's security guarantee for virtual assets" as the primary consideration when choosing a virtual asset trading platform. This highlights that in this emerging investment market, investors attach great importance to asset security.
Liquidity is indispensable: followed closely by “the depth of liquidity and price stability of transactions” (48%), reflecting investors’ expectation that the market can have relatively stable and reasonable transaction prices, which is also a factor in large-scale international transactions. advantages of the place.
Localized services vs. international advantages: "Having Taiwan dollar deposit and withdrawal services" (43%) is the third major consideration in the survey results, becoming one of the advantages of local exchanges in Taiwan. However, "the international popularity and influence of the platform" also plays a key factor in investment decisions (41%), and the difference between the two is only about the same.
It is worth noting that in terms of safeguarding user rights and properly keeping user assets, the top three platforms that respondents in this survey trust are the international centralized exchanges Binance, OKX (Note) and Taiwan’s local Maicoin. In addition, only 22% of the respondents regard "whether the Financial Supervisory Commission's money laundering prevention compliance statement" is an important consideration, which means that there is still a certain gap between regulatory policies and users' actual cognition and behavior. It is worth considering, and why the respondents are willing to take considerable risks is also worthy of further study.
To sum up, although domestic exchanges are convenient for depositing and withdrawing Taiwan dollars, they have not become a decisive factor in investors’ asset allocation. What investors value more is the overall strength of the platform, including security, liquidity, product diversity and brand international visibility.
3. People expect a safe but free investment environment
In addition to the use of virtual assets, this survey also revealed for the first time the public’s expectations for the investment environment: they expect a balance between ensuring investment security and maintaining market freedom. Generally speaking, the interviewees hope to provide a safe but free investment environment with less than moderate government supervision, and are also open to international centralized exchanges entering the domestic market.
Fraud prevention and anti-money laundering should be subject to "strict supervision": The public has high expectations for supervision in terms of fraud prevention and anti-money laundering, and believes that "strict supervision" should be adopted. In terms of user asset custody measures, transaction fairness, customer service complaint handling, etc., "moderate supervision" is expected and market vitality should not be excessively restricted.
Product details should be "self-regulated by the industry": Regarding specific regulatory matters, the public believes that such things as transaction leverage multiples, marketing strategies, new currency listings, etc. should mainly be self-regulated by the industry. This view reflects expectations for market mechanisms.
Market competition should be "free and open": The survey shows that the public is open to international exchanges, with 77.9% of respondents saying that overseas exchanges that have not completed Taiwan's Money Laundering Prevention Law Compliance Statement only need "appropriate supervision and cooperation." The government does not impose many restrictions on fraud and anti-money laundering work, and retains the people's right to choose." Less than 1% of the respondents believed that such platforms should be completely blocked, highlighting the public's demand for keeping the market open. . In addition, what is more noteworthy is that as many as 80% (82.7%) of the respondents agreed that the government should encourage international exchanges that are willing to cooperate with Taiwan's regulations and related policies to enter the Taiwan market, reflecting the public's expectations for the introduction of international high-quality platforms.
It can be seen from this survey that investing in virtual assets has become a long-term development trend in the future, and the respondents’ expectations for relevant regulatory agencies are both cautious and open. When formulating relevant policies, whether we can deeply understand the actual behavior of users and their expectations for the investment environment, adopt a flexible regulatory approach, and at the same time encourage international exchanges that are willing to cooperate with government policies to enter the Taiwan market will determine whether we can promote industry development. And one of the keys to improving the overall competitiveness of Taiwan’s virtual asset ecosystem.
Note: OKX was announced by the Financial Supervisory Commission on 2024/06/07 as a "company that engages in securities/futures/investment/investment consulting business without the approval of the Financial Supervisory Commission" and has not been registered in accordance with the Company Law. The Financial Supervisory Commission recommends that investors reject it. Related services provided in Taiwan. For details, please see the Financial Supervisory Commission announcement: https://3434.twsa.org.tw/dtl.php?id=196