Vietnam’s strict 5-year digital asset framework pilot kicks off

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Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc has signed a resolution implementing a five-year pilot program for a digital asset market framework, which brings with it stringent requirements affecting domestic and foreign investors, as well as an equally strict licensing regime for digital asset service providers.

• Reshaping ‘crypto’ ecosystem with new rules
• Setting the bar for CASP license
• Vietnam propels to global top

According to a September 9 report from the Government Electronic Newspaper of Vietnam, the framework establishes new rules for the trading and issuance of digital assets, with the emphasis on a safety-first approach.

“The pilot implementation of the crypto-asset market is carried out on the principles of caution, control,” said the report, adding that it was “a roadmap suitable to practice safety, transparency, efficiency, and protection of the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals participating in the crypto-asset market.”

Strict new requirements for investors and businesses

With the pilot’s introduction, which takes effect immediately, any businesses and organizations providing digital asset services, issuing digital assets, participating in digital asset investment, and operating in the Vietnamese market will be subject to a range of new controls.

Firstly, the offering, issuance, trading, and payment of digital assets must be made in Vietnamese Dong.

In addition, organizations issuing digital assets must be Vietnamese and registered to operate as a limited liability company or a joint stock company under the country’s enterprise laws.

Another mandate requires that digital assets be issued based on underlying “real assets,” excluding securities or fiat currencies. In other words, the issuance of fiat currency-backed digital assets is banned.

In order to “ensure security and safety” for consumers, issuers, traders, and service providers must all comply with relevant anti-money laundering (AML), terrorist financing, financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, electronic transactions, network information security, network security, and data protection laws.

When it comes to taxation of the digital asset space, the pilot mandates that the transaction, transfer, and trading of digital assets are subject to the same tax regulations as securities “until there is a tax policy for the crypto asset market in Vietnam.”

The new framework also comes with a licensing regime for crypto asset service providers (CASPs). Digital assets can only be offered and issued to foreign investors through CASPs licensed by the Ministry of Finance, and domestic and foreign investors are only allowed to open accounts at licensed CASPs.

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License requirements

Companies and organizations seeking to obtain a CASP license in Vietnam must maintain a minimum capital of VND10 trillion ($379 million).

The service provider must have a physical office with “adequate facilities, techniques, equipment, office equipment, and technology systems suitable for providing crypto asset services.” This means that decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are out.

The applicant organization’s CEO and CTO (chief technology officer) must also have several years’ experience—two and five years, respectively—in the finance and tech spaces, the company must have at least 10 employees working in the technology department with diplomas and training certificates in network information security, and it must have at least ten employees with securities practice certificates working in other professional departments.

In terms of risk management, the long list of requirements includes providing information disclosure, internal control and transaction monitoring processes, as well as procedures for preventing conflicts of interest, handling customer complaints, and compensating customers.

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Vietnam’s crypto dilemma

Vietnam has seen digital asset adoption skyrocket in recent years, with the country climbing to fourth in blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index 2025, up from fifth in 2024; Vietnam also ranked sixth in the world when adjusted for population.

This booming space has seen the country attempt to balance a desire to foster budding status as a digital asset hub with the need for tighter controls. Since 2023, Vietnam has been attempting to get itself off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “grey list” for “jurisdiction under increased monitoring” due to money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risk.

The new five-year pilot scheme is the latest step in this tightrope walk, following on from the National Assembly of Vietnam, the country’s legislature, overwhelmingly approving the ‘Law on Digital Technology Industry’ on June 14 of this year.

When it comes into force on January 1, 2026, the legislation will bring incentives for digital technology development, particularly semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital technology startups. The ‘Law on Digital Technology Industry’ represents the clearest sign yet that the Vietnamese government aims to further its digital tech hub status, setting an ambitious target of 150,000 digital technology enterprises by 2035, according to local media.

The strict controls of the pilot framework, announced Tuesday, counterbalance this tech push.

The government news report stated that the implementation period will be five years from the date the resolution came into force, up until September 9, 2030. It added that, after the end of this implementation period, the digital asset market will continue to operate according to the resolution “until there are legal regulations amending, supplementing or replacing it.”

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Watch: Breaking down solutions to blockchain regulation hurdles