TSM (Taiwan Semiconductor ADR) — Dependency Report

Moderate risk · 5.5/10

⚠️ If you arrived here searching the ticker “TSM”, check which instrument you hold. This page is about the NYSE-listed American Depositary Receipt issued against Taiwan Semiconductor’s ordinary shares. There is also a Robinhood stock token whose on-chain symbol is literally TSM — same three letters, entirely different instrument, and it is assessed separately at TSM (Robinhood Stock Token), which scores 3.0. The token is a Jersey debt security that references this ADR; holding it is not holding this. Never join these two on the ticker.

Listing	Underlying	Ratio	Type	Market cap
NYSE: TSM, since 1997-10-08	TWSE 2330, listed 1994-09-05	1 ADS = 5 ordinary shares	Sponsored ADR	about $1.98T

Why this page exists

This is a dependency report. It exists because the Robinhood TSM token is not a report about Taiwan Semiconductor — it is a report about a Jersey debt security whose reference asset is this ADR. The two fail in completely different ways and on completely different timescales, and collapsing them would let a sound underlying launder a weak wrapper. It is the same split as STRC and STRCx.

⚠️ The chain is three deep, and the middle layer is the one readers skip:

Robinhood token  ──▶  TSM ADR (NYSE)  ──▶  depositary bank  ──▶  2330.TW ordinary (TWSE)
   tsm-rh              THIS PAGE                                   Taiwan jurisdiction

The terminal asset is a Taiwanese security, and the ADR is a depositary construct sitting on top of it. That is not the usual shape for a tokenized-equity reference — a wrapper over a US common share settles in one jurisdiction, and this does not.

⚠️ The 5:1 ratio is the first thing any wrapper analysis gets wrong. A per-token “share count” that does not say whether it means ADS or ordinary shares is ambiguous by a factor of five.

Volatility — 4.0

Measured 2026-09-04: last close $428.91, 52-week range $241.62–$479.00 — about a 98% spread on the low.

Why 4.0 and not higher on a franchise this strong. TSMC’s competitive position is close to unique: leading-edge foundry capacity with no substitutable second source at scale. Ordinary equity risk here is lower than most single names that score the same.

⚠️ It lands at 4.0 for the opposite reason to a volatile growth stock. TSM carries a discrete geopolitical tail — essentially all leading-edge capacity sits on one island subject to an unresolved sovereignty dispute. That risk does not appear in trailing volatility and will not be priced smoothly if it arrives. A holder is short a binary, and trailing-vol measures understate it precisely because it has not happened. A quiet recent tape is evidence about the distribution, not about the tail.

Liquidity — 9.0

Among the most liquid ADRs listed: about $1.98T market cap, continuous NYSE two-sided markets, a deep options chain, index membership.

✅ This is the axis where the underlying is genuinely excellent — and it is exactly the strength a wrapper does not inherit. The Robinhood token referencing this instrument trades on a float around $1.47M.

Counterparty — 6.5

An ADR is a claim on a depositary bank that holds the ordinary shares. It is not a direct holding of 2330.TW. In normal conditions the distinction is invisible: institutional holders convert ADS to ordinary and back, and arbitrage holds the two books together.

⚠️ The depositary bank is not established here. The ADR is sponsored, but the institution is not named in what has been read, and guessing at it would be worse than a blank — the identity of the counterparty is exactly the fact a dependency report exists to state. It is recoverable from TSMC’s Form 20-F, which names the depositary and the deposit agreement. Held at 6.5 rather than higher for that reason: an unresolved counterparty cannot score as though it were resolved.

Two further layers sit underneath. FX — the ordinary shares are TWD-denominated and the ADR is USD, so a holder is long TWD/USD whether they intended to be. And Taiwan market structure — conversion depends on Taiwanese settlement and on foreign-ownership rules remaining as they are.

Redemption — 6.5

Institutional holders convert ADS to ordinary and back via the depositary; retail generally cannot, and exits by selling on NYSE. Cross-book arbitrage keeps the ADR and 2330.TW aligned in normal conditions, and it is the mechanism that would break first.

⚠️ Conversion depends on Taiwanese settlement continuing to function — so this channel closes on a jurisdiction rather than on a counterparty. That is a different failure mode from the depositary itself failing, and a more likely one.

Scores

axis	score	reasoning
Volatility	4.0	52-week range $241.62–$479.00. ⚠️ Scored on the discrete geopolitical tail, not the trailing tape — leading-edge capacity concentrated in one jurisdiction under an unresolved sovereignty dispute
Liquidity	9.0	Among the most liquid ADRs listed. About $1.98T cap, continuous NYSE markets, deep options, index membership
Counterparty	6.5	A claim on a depositary bank, not on 2330.TW directly. Decades-old, sponsored, routinely arbitraged. ⚠️ Held here rather than higher because the depositary is unnamed; lifts on reading the 20-F
Redemption	6.5	Institutional ADS↔ordinary conversion; retail exits by selling. ⚠️ Depends on Taiwanese settlement continuing to function — the channel most likely to close, and it closes on a jurisdiction
Overall	5.5	A high-quality, deeply liquid instrument carrying one concentrated risk that is neither diversifiable nor distributional. Mean 6.5, min 4.0 — ⚠️ 5.5 sits a full point below the mean, deliberately: a 9.0 liquidity score cannot offset a binary that would impair the asset outright, because liquidity is precisely what disappears in that scenario. The min is the more honest anchor here. ✅ Not lower: TSMC is a real, profitable, dominant operating business, and the base case is that none of this binds

How to use this page

• This is a dependency report, not a recommendation to hold TSM, and it does not score any tokenized wrapper. For the token, read TSM (Robinhood Stock Token).
• ⚠️ Never join on the ticker. The Robinhood token’s symbol() is TSM, identical to this NYSE ticker. This page deliberately does not claim the bare alias.
• A wrapper cannot score better than this page on the axes it inherits — volatility, and the geopolitical tail. It can and does score worse on everything else.
• ⚠️ Before computing any premium or discount of a token against this ADR, check the weekday and the quote timestamp. The ADR trades NYSE hours; a token trades continuously. A gap measured against a stale close is weekend basis, not a discount.

What to watch

• TSMC’s Form 20-F — it names the depositary bank and the deposit agreement, which is the one open counterparty question on this page.
• ADS/ordinary conversion continuing to function. It is the alignment mechanism between the two books, and it depends on Taiwanese settlement rather than on the depositary.
• Taiwan foreign-ownership rules. A change there closes the conversion channel without anything happening to TSMC.

Revision history

• 2026-09-06 — first assessment. NYSE-listed since 1997-10-08 against TWSE 2330; 1 ADS = 5 ordinary shares; market cap about $1.98T; last close $428.91 on a 52-week range of $241.62–$479.00. Depositary bank not established in this pass and deliberately not guessed.