Vietnamese companies have entered a race to obtain the country’s first virtual asset licences. The Vietnamese government plans to start a pilot programme for locally operated digital asset exchanges as early as this month. The move, included in a government policy announced in February, is part of a broader effort to tighten monitoring of virtual asset trading and capital flows, Reuters reported on Tuesday local time.
A Finance Ministry document seen by Reuters showed 5 companies passed an initial eligibility screening. They include affiliates of 3 Vietnamese private banks, Techcombank, VPBank and LPBank, as well as securities firm VIX Securities and Sun Group.
Vietnam’s Finance Ministry is also preparing a draft of new rules that would ban Vietnamese citizens from trading on overseas virtual asset platforms.
Most Vietnamese traders currently use offshore centralised exchanges such as Binance, OKX and Bybit, Reuters reported.
Hwang Chi-gyu
delight@d-today.co.kr