Vietnam the latest to announce firm steps towards crypto regulation

Vietnam has become the latest nation to announce firm steps towards crypto regulation. The nation’s Deputy Prime Minister has notified three ministries that they should work with the central bank to build a legal framework for crypto.

On the orders of Le Minh Khai, the Deputy PM, the Finance, Justice, and Information & Communications ministries will be responsible for engaging with the State Bank of Vietnam for this framework. This has been a long time in the making. As far back as 2017, the Vietnamese PM had approved a plan for developing a legal framework for “virtual assets, digital currencies, and virtual currencies.”

That plan was put on ice in 2018, after a flurry of proposals were made but not actioned. Interest within the government picked up again in 2021, when the Ministry of Finance established a task force to review the supervision of crypto issuance and trading activities.

Crypto is booming in Vietnam, and that might have spurred the new wave of government interest. Around six per cent of the population of Vietnam now own cryptocurrency. As of August of last year that meant that, by percentage, Vietnam actually ranks #1 in terms of crypto ownsership.