2021-01-012024-05-18https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/698393The first year of this research will study the legal characters of crypto-assets, focusing on whether payment tokens, the mainstream crypto-asset, shall be subject to securities regulations. The research contains two parts: Firstly, it explores whether traditional payment tokens, such as Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, are investment in their nature due to their highly volatile market price. If so, they might not be purely payment instruments and might be subject to securities regulation. Secondly, it explores stablecoins, such as Tether and Libra, to examine whether they should be treated as payment instruments free from securities regulation because of their relatively stable price. The second year of this research will study the transaction rules for crypto-assets, focusing on the challenges to securities transaction posed by the decentralized blockchain. The research contains two parts: Firstly, it explores the impact of crypto-assets on uncertificated securities, specifically that the current third-party verification mechanism based on central clearinghouses might hinder the decentralization of blockchain. Secondly, it discusses blockchain governance, exploring how the distributed ledger technology of blockchain can respond to regulatory needs and how to allocate the level of centralization and decentralization to effectively manage blockchain nodes and build trust. The third year of this research will study the jurisdictional issues of crypto-assets. The issuance and trade of crypto-assets are cross-boundary, which involves the protection of investors in many countries and thus trigger global regulation. The needs to conduct global filing severely increase transaction costs and hinder the development of crypto-asset markets. Accordingly, the jurisdictional rules currently adopted need corresponding adjustment, and a system based on de minimis exception might provide some breakthrough.crypto-asset; stablecoin; blockchain; securities regulation; decentralization