Vietnam's Crypto Pilot: Five Firms Pass Initial Review, No Licenses Issued Yet

Vietnam has not yet issued a single crypto-exchange license — but five companies have cleared the first hurdle in the country’s tightly controlled, five-year digital asset pilot, officials confirmed. At the Vietnam RWA Summit 2026, To Tran Hoa, deputy standing head of the Digital Asset Trading Market Board under the State Securities Commission, told attendees that five applicants passed the initial assessment, according to an Aug. 30 report from the Vietnam News Agency. Regulators did not identify the firms or say when final licensing decisions will be made. Passing the initial assessment does not authorize a company to operate an exchange. What applicants must meet Vietnam’s regulatory framework is strict and capital-intensive. Key licensing requirements under Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP include: - Minimum contributed charter capital: 10 trillion VND (about $383 million), contributed in Vietnamese dong. This is charter capital, not a fee paid to government. Authorities have not said whether the five preliminary applicants have already secured the full amount. - Ownership thresholds: At least 65% of capital must come from institutional shareholders, and more than 35% must be contributed by at least two qualifying organizations (such as commercial banks, securities firms, fund managers, insurers or technology companies). - Technology and security: Applicants must produce an appraisal confirming their systems meet Level 4 information-system security standards. The Ministry of Public Security will carry out the required security assessment before any exchange can begin operating. - Operational safeguards: Rules cover management qualifications, custody arrangements, transaction monitoring, internal controls, conflict management, customer-complaint handling, anti-money-laundering (AML) systems and investor identity verification (KYC). New penalties take effect Sept. 1 Decree No. 284/2026/ND-CP comes into force on Sept. 1 and will apply alongside Resolution 05 during the pilot. The decree introduces fines and enforcement mechanisms for unlicensed activity and compliance failures: - Unlicensed providers or platforms that advertise without a license: organizational fines of 180–200 million VND, plus potential takedown orders for websites, apps and trading systems. - Licensed providers: fines for failures such as not segregating customer assets, inadequate transaction monitoring or weak account protections. - Customer verification lapses: organizational fines of 50–70 million VND. - General fine structure: organizations face the full amounts listed; individuals typically face half. Maximum penalties are 200 million VND (organization) and 100 million VND (individual). - Specific provision (Article 9): organizations could be fined 30–50 million VND if domestic investors trade outside Ministry of Finance-licensed providers; individuals would face half those amounts. However, that penalty only becomes enforceable six months after the first crypto-asset service provider is licensed by the Ministry of Finance. Importantly, because no provider has yet been licensed, the six-month countdown for requiring domestic investors to use licensed Vietnamese platforms has not started. Experts cited by VNA say domestic users therefore will not be liable for fines from Sept. 1 simply for using overseas or unlicensed platforms. Other violations in Decree 284 — such as operating or advertising an unauthorized platform, improper token issuance, or AML and customer-data failures — are immediately enforceable from Sept. 1. Pilot scope and next steps Vietnam launched the five-year pilot with Resolution 05 on Sept. 9, 2025. The framework allows locally issued crypto assets to be offered only to foreign investors, requires tokens to be backed by real-world assets, and bars tokens that would qualify as securities or fiat. Authorities have indicated only a limited number of exchanges will be licensed under the pilot. The next major milestone is the Ministry of Finance issuing the first license. That approval will trigger the six-month period after which domestic investors must use licensed Vietnamese platforms for covered crypto trading. No licensing deadline has been set, and regulators emphasize that passing a preliminary assessment is not the same as receiving operational authorization. Investors should monitor official Ministry of Finance and State Securities Commission notices rather than treating early assessments as permission to operate.