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Vietnam Moves Crypto Into Formal Economy With Tight Onshore Licensing

Regulators require large, Vietnamese‑majority exchanges that settle only in VND to capture offshore retail trading and integrate crypto with banks and tax systems.

Overview

  • Regulators have published implementing rules, opened license applications and set a target to launch a five‑year pilot domestic trading market in Q3 2026 to bring crypto trading onshore.
  • The licensing framework fixes a very high entry bar by requiring Vietnamese‑incorporated operators with VND 10,000 billion in charter capital and at least 65% domestic platform equity.
  • Each licensed exchange must have at least two qualified domestic institutional backers holding a combined minimum 35% of capital and foreign ownership is capped at 49%.
  • All trades on licensed platforms must settle exclusively in Vietnamese đồng through licensed banks and platforms must collect a 0.1% personal tax on the gross value of each transfer at the point of transaction.
  • The rules force international exchanges to choose locally incorporated, majority‑domestic joint ventures or face restricted access, a move designed to embed banks and insurers in crypto markets and capture tax and monitoring of retail users.