MaiCoin Group, which operates Taiwan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is considering an initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ within two years, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The company is completing a Series C funding round that could value it at about US$400 million, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
MaiCoin will use the proceeds to finance expansion into Southeast Asia, one of the people said.
No final decision has been made on pursuing a NASDAQ listing, they said.
Pulling off a first-time share sale in the US would be a rare feat for a Taiwanese company.
In the past five years, only two firms based in Taiwan have completed US IPOs, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
One of them is a special purpose acquisition company, the data showed.
While governments from Singapore to Hong Kong are increasing oversight of cryptocurrency trading, Taiwan has not imposed any formal regulations on the sector, except for asking firms to prepare for complying with laws to counter money laundering.
In January, the Financial Supervisory Commission said that only three of 16 crypto exchanges had completed that process.
“Taiwan is the Goldilocks to develop DeFi in terms of financial regulations,” MaiCoin founder Alex Liu (劉世偉) said in an interview last month, using shorthand for decentralized-finance applications.
Liu declined to comment on the Series C funding round and plans to list on NASDAQ.
MaiCoin expects trading revenue to rise more than 70 percent annually through 2025, fundraising documents seen by Bloomberg said.
It forecasts similar growth for its crypto brokerage business.
The company was founded in 2014 by Liu, a Stanford University graduate who previously worked at Qualcomm Inc.
The company gets about 80 percent of its revenue from Taiwan, one of the sources said.
The exchange and brokerage businesses are similar in size, the person said.
In addition to using its mobile app, MaiCoin clients in Taiwan can process trading orders at 7-Eleven and Hi-Life stores.
Taiwan’s lightly regulated crypto market could be a selling point for MaiCoin.
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