Vietnam is speeding up a pilot for a regulated crypto asset trading market as it seeks to ease scrutiny from the Financial Action Task Force over its anti-money-laundering controls. According to Foresight News, Vietnam has been on the FATF gray list since June 2023, and its long-unregulated crypto sector is seen as one of the main risk areas.

Under a five-year pilot plan led by the Ministry of Finance, exchange license applicants must have at least 10 trillion Vietnamese dong in paid-in registered capital, foreign ownership is capped at 49%, and trading can only be denominated in Vietnamese dong. Five applicants, including entities linked to Techcombank, VPBank and LPBank, as well as VIX Securities and Sun Group, have passed preliminary review. The first official trading activity in Vietnam's crypto asset market could begin as early as the third quarter. The ministry is also drafting rules that would ban Vietnamese citizens from trading on overseas crypto platforms.