Catenaa, Friday, August 28, 2026-Vietnam is accelerating plans for a regulated domestic cryptocurrency market as the country faces mounting pressure to address anti-money laundering shortcomings flagged by the Financial Action Task Force. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/asean/vietnam-rushes-pilot-regulated-crypto-market-pressure-global-watchdog-builds
Five companies have passed an initial assessment under Vietnam’s digital asset pilot, with formal domestic exchange operations potentially beginning during the third quarter, The Business Times reported.
The initiative could bring a large share of Vietnam’s crypto activity under domestic supervision after years in which investors largely relied on offshore platforms.
Vietnam has been on the FATF’s list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, commonly called the grey list, since June 2023.
In its June 19 review, FATF said Vietnam still needed to address deficiencies across 10 areas, including regulation of virtual assets and virtual asset service providers.
The watchdog said all deadlines under Vietnam’s original action plan expired in May 2025 and urged authorities to complete the remaining reforms quickly.
Digital assets have become one of the clearest tests of whether Vietnam can turn new laws into effective supervision.
The Business Times cited Chainalysis data showing more than $200 billion in cryptocurrency flowed into Vietnam during the 12 months through June 2025, up 55% from the previous year.
Vietnam ranked as the third-largest crypto market in Asia-Pacific after India and South Korea, according to the report.
The size of that market increases both the commercial opportunity and the anti-money laundering challenge.
Vietnamese authorities want transactions increasingly routed through licensed VASPs, allowing regulators to retain records and monitor suspicious activity.
State Securities Commission official To Tran Hoa linked the pilot directly to Vietnam’s attempts to satisfy FATF standards at an industry event this month, according to The Business Times.
Hoa said experience from the pilot could help authorities develop a permanent regulatory system and support efforts to leave the grey list.
Vietnam established the formal basis for the market through Government Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP, issued Sept. 9, 2025.
The resolution created a five-year pilot covering crypto asset issuance, trading markets and digital asset services.
It requires crypto transactions within the pilot to pass through service providers licensed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance.
Exchange operators face unusually high entry requirements.
Each applicant must be a Vietnamese company with at least 10 trillion dong in paid-in capital.
At least 65% of its capital must come from institutional shareholders. More than 35% must be contributed by at least two qualifying institutions, including banks, securities firms, fund managers, insurers or technology companies.
The Business Times valued the minimum capital requirement at about $382 million.
Prospective operators must also establish procedures covering custody, trading, risk controls and anti-money laundering, while meeting Level 4 information security requirements.
Five prospective operators have cleared an initial appraisal, The Business Times reported.
Their ability to begin operations now depends on completing technology, capital and operational requirements.
Sacom Crypto Asset Exchange, or SCEX, is among those companies.
Its chief executive, Nguyen Minh Huong, said the business is already constructing the infrastructure needed for a regulated market despite some detailed rules remaining unfinished, according to the report.
The high capital threshold appears designed to limit the first group of operators to large companies with the resources to build institutional-grade systems.
Regulators are also preparing financial-safety thresholds governing how licensed operators use their capital.
That approach could produce a small number of heavily regulated exchanges rather than a broad field of competing startups.
The timing is important because passing laws alone will not satisfy FATF.
The watchdog’s July global review of virtual asset regulation said many jurisdictions had introduced legal frameworks but continued to struggle with licensing, supervision and enforcement in practice.
Vietnam faces that same challenge.
FATF’s June assessment said the country still needs effective risk-based supervision, stronger suspicious transaction reporting, better financial intelligence and greater beneficial ownership transparency.
It must also demonstrate progress in money laundering investigations and enforcement.
Vietnam remains on the grey list alongside Laos in Southeast Asia. Myanmar is on FATF’s separate list of high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action.
For Hanoi, establishing licensed crypto platforms could therefore serve two purposes.
The exchanges could capture economic activity currently occurring offshore while giving authorities greater visibility into transactions involving Vietnamese users.
Vietnam’s pilot may eventually extend beyond conventional cryptocurrency trading.
Hoa said regulators are examining tokenized real-world assets linked to commodities, property projects, cash flows and green assets, according to The Business Times.
That could turn the pilot into a broader test of blockchain-based capital markets rather than simply an attempt to regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The immediate objective, however, remains bringing existing activity into a system where ownership, transfers and service providers can be identified.
Vietnam already has one of Asia’s largest crypto user bases.
The regulatory question is whether Hanoi can now bring enough of that activity onto licensed domestic infrastructure to satisfy both its own financial authorities and FATF.
The first exchange launch will offer the clearest test yet.
