The first batch of official transactions landed as early as the third quarter, and Vietnam accelerated the pilot crypto asset market supervision

Comparatively, Vietnam is speeding up a pilot regulated crypto asset exchange market to ease the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s review pressure on its anti-money laundering mechanism. Vietnam has been on the FATF “grey list” since June 2023, and the crypto industry, which has lacked regulation for a long time, is seen as one of the main risk points. According to the five-year pilot program led by Vietnam's Ministry of Finance, the exchange license requires a minimum paid-up registered capital of 10 trillion VND, or approximately US$380 million. The maximum foreign shareholding limit is 49%, and transactions can only be denominated in VND. Currently, five applicants, including Techcombank, VPBank, and LPBank related parties, as well as VIX Securities and Sun Group, have passed the preliminary review. The Vietnamese crypto asset market is expected to see the first batch of official trading activities as early as the third quarter. Vietnam's Ministry of Finance is also drafting relevant rules to ban Vietnamese citizens from trading on overseas crypto platforms.