Vietnam Fines Crypto Traders as Five Firms Vie to Own the Market

Vietnam will fine retail crypto traders up to $1,900 starting September 1 for trading on any exchange the government has not licensed. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang signed the measure, Decree No. 284/2026/NĐ-CP, on July 16. It arrives just as regulators prepare to hand the country’s entire licensed crypto market to a maximum of five companies.

For the millions of Vietnamese already trading crypto, the legal alternative barely exists yet. None of the five leading applicants had received a license as of this week. The fine, though, is already real, and it lands in the same range as what Vietnam charges for drunk driving.

A $1,900 Fine for a $220 Billion Habit

Decree 284 was issued under Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP, the law that opened Vietnam’s five-year crypto pilot in September 2025. It replaces an earlier draft that had proposed a lighter penalty, capping individual fines at roughly VND 30 million; regulators hardened that number before the final version went out.

The Block reported that the new penalties for ordinary traders now sit close to what Vietnam imposes for driving under the influence, an unusually blunt opening move for a market regulators say they still want to grow.

The fine schedule spans investors, exchanges, and token issuers differently depending on the violation:

Regulators can also suspend licenses, confiscate assets tied to a violation, and order firms to return investor money. The numbers matter because of what Vietnam actually does with crypto. Chainalysis ranked the country fourth worldwide in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, behind India, the United States and Pakistan, and estimated Vietnamese traders moved more than $220 billion in digital assets between July 2024 and June 2025.

Five Companies, One Prize

Set against that volume, the supply side of Vietnam’s new market is tiny by design. The government has said it will license no more than five exchanges during the pilot’s opening phase, a deliberate bottleneck meant to let officials watch how the market behaves before letting more operators in.

Getting one of those five slots is not cheap. Applicants need charter capital of at least VND 10 trillion, roughly $382 million, and foreign investors are capped at 49% ownership of any licensed operator. Five firms have already cleared an initial qualification round, even though at least ten banks and securities firms had signaled interest to the Ministry of Finance back in February.

Three big private banks, one brokerage, and one property conglomerate stand to inherit exclusive access to a market that today runs almost entirely outside their walls.

The 87% Still Trading Outside the System

That is the gap the decree is trying to close. Industry estimates put Vietnam’s crypto owners at 17 million to 20 million people, close to a fifth of the population, with nearly half the country under age 44 and roughly 70% of crypto owners between 18 and 34.

Almost none of that activity runs through a Vietnamese exchange today, because none have been licensed yet. A survey of 5,000 users found that the overwhelming majority still rely on platforms based overseas:

• 63% of surveyed traders use Binance’s peer-to-peer marketplace
• 21% use Bybit
• 19% use OKX

Those figures overlap because many traders keep accounts on more than one exchange. Cross-border remittances feed the same habit. Vietnam is one of the world’s largest remittance recipients, and workers abroad send billions home each year, often through channels cheaper and faster than a bank wire, crypto included.

Capital Controls Are Driving This Crackdown

Reuters reported that Vietnamese officials are worried heavy use of crypto and stablecoins is weakening their grip on capital flows, in a country that already limits cross-border transfers and offers savers few places to park money besides gold and property.

That scarcity has consequences. One report tied to the licensing race noted Vietnamese gold was trading at a 10% premium to global benchmarks, a sign of how much savings has nowhere else to go.

The pilot framework requires that crypto assets be issued, traded, and settled only in Vietnamese dong. Crypto assets can only be issued against real underlying assets, not as securities or as a substitute for fiat currency, which effectively rules out a dong-pegged or dollar-pegged stablecoin inside the licensed system. USDT and similar tokens keep circulating, just outside the rules the government is now enforcing.

The Licenses Are Still Stuck in Review

The Ministry of Finance opened license applications on January 20, 2026, with reviews meant to take up to 30 working days once a submission is complete. Six months later, none has cleared the final stage. Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Duc Chi said in May that regulated trading could begin as early as the third quarter of 2026, a window that is closing fast.

The ministry has been working the file jointly with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Bank of Vietnam, reflecting how much of this is about monitoring money rather than just protecting traders. Vietnam remains on the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list, the watchdog’s flag for countries with unresolved gaps in anti-money laundering enforcement, despite its outsized crypto adoption.

Will Everyone Actually Migrate to Licensed Platforms?

Not immediately, according to the people building the local exchanges. A Remitano spokesperson told The Block the market would likely split in its early stages, with some traders moving to licensed apps while others stay on international exchanges until local platforms match them on liquidity, fees and product range.

Vietnam’s decree lands as governments elsewhere race to formalize crypto oversight on their own terms. In Washington, lawmakers advanced crypto tax bills that put compliance ahead of hype through Congress this year. It mirrors a pattern already playing out in Europe, where new licensing rules pushed Binance users toward Coinbase and Ripple’s MiCA licensed platforms as the exchange lost ground to compliant rivals.

Industry voices in Vietnam are more optimistic about the long game. Phan Duc Trung, chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Assets Association, argued the shift benefits the state as much as the market.

This would not only contribute to state budget revenues but also promote the growth of the domestic digital economy.

Trung also said the legal framework still has gaps in supervision, taxation and risk management left to work out. The news moved fast through crypto circles regardless, with trading focused accounts on X posting a breakdown of the new fine schedule within hours of the announcement.

Vietnam’s fine schedule takes effect September 1. Its first licensed exchange still does not exist.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do the fines on individual traders actually start being enforced?

Decree 284 takes legal effect on September 1, but ForkLog reported that penalties on domestic investors for trading outside licensed platforms will only be enforced six months after Vietnam issues its first exchange license, meaning individual traders effectively get a grace period tied to how fast the licensing process moves.

Is the five company shortlist final, or are more firms entering the race?

More are joining. South Korea’s Bithumb has moved to enter Vietnam’s licensing race through a partnership with SSI Digital, and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank has partnered with Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s Upbit exchange, on top of the five firms that already cleared initial screening.

What happens to money Vietnamese traders already hold on Binance or Bybit?

The decree does not spell out a forced withdrawal deadline for funds already sitting on offshore accounts. It penalizes continued trading through unlicensed platforms from September 1 onward, which means the immediate legal risk attaches to new activity rather than past holdings.

Can Vietnamese crypto assets be pegged to the dollar, like USDT?

Not under the licensed framework. Crypto assets in the pilot can only be issued against real underlying assets, not as securities or substitutes for fiat currency, which rules out a locally licensed stablecoin pegged to the dong or the dollar even as offshore tokens like USDT keep circulating informally.

Could Vietnam license more than five exchanges later?

Officials have described five as a first phase limit rather than a permanent ceiling, meant to let regulators watch how the pilot market behaves before deciding whether to approve additional operators over the program’s five year run.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice; crypto assets are volatile and Vietnam’s rules were accurate as of publication, so traders should confirm current requirements with a licensed professional before acting.