Vietnam’s Crypto Licensing Race Heats Up: Five Firms Clear First Review, but No Exchange License Yet

Vietnam’s Crypto Licensing Race Heats Up: Five Firms Clear First Review, but No Exchange License Yet

Vietnam has moved a step closer to its first licensed crypto exchange. Five companies have passed an initial assessment stage under the country’s five-year digital asset market pilot, according to Tran Hoa, deputy standing head of the Digital Asset Trading Market Board under Vietnam’s State Securities Commission. But the milestone, disclosed at the Vietnam RWA Summit 2026 and reported by the Vietnam News Agency on Aug. 30, comes with an important caveat: no license has been issued, and passing the initial review does not authorize any company to operate.

Authorities did not name the five applicants or say when final licensing decisions will be issued. What is clear is the scale of the barrier standing between preliminary approval and a functioning exchange.

A 383 million USD entry ticket

Vietnam’s Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP requires each exchange applicant to hold at least 10 trillion Vietnamese dong, approximately 383 million USD, in contributed charter capital, paid in Vietnamese dong. The capital requirements do not stop there. At least 65 percent must come from institutional shareholders, and more than 35 percent must be contributed by at least two qualifying organizations, a list that includes commercial banks, securities companies, fund managers, insurers, and technology companies.

Applicants must also pass a technology appraisal certifying that their systems meet Level 4 information-system security standards, an assessment handled by the Ministry of Public Security before any exchange can begin operating. Further requirements cover management qualifications, custody arrangements, transaction monitoring, internal controls, conflict management, customer complaints, anti-money laundering systems, and investor-identity verification.

Notably, the 10 trillion dong figure is charter capital, not a fee paid to the government, and Vietnam has not confirmed whether all five preliminary applicants have already secured the full amount.

New penalties arrive September 1

The licensing progress coincides with a tightening enforcement regime. Decree No. 284/2026/ND-CP takes effect on Sept. 1 and will remain in force while Resolution 05 governs the pilot program. The decree establishes penalties for unlicensed crypto services, improper token issuance, weak customer checks, and anti-money laundering failures.

Organizations providing crypto services or advertising an exchange without a license face fines of between 180 million and 200 million dong, and authorities can order the removal of websites, software, and trading systems involved in violations. Licensed providers face their own schedule of fines for failing to separate customer assets, monitor transactions, or protect account information, with customer-verification failures carrying organizational penalties of 50 million to 70 million dong. Individuals generally face half the organizational amounts.

Retail traders get a grace period, for now

The provision that attracted the most attention is Article 9, which sets fines of 30 million to 50 million dong for organizations whose domestic investors trade outside a Ministry of Finance-licensed provider, implying individual exposure of 15 million to 25 million dong. But that penalty does not begin on Sept. 1.

Article 7 of Resolution 05 states that domestic investors become subject to the licensed-platform requirement only six months after the first crypto asset service provider receives approval. Because Vietnam has not yet licensed any provider, the countdown has not started. Experts cited by the Vietnam News Agency confirm that domestic investors will not be fined from Sept. 1 merely for continuing to use an overseas or otherwise unlicensed platform. Other violations under Decree 284, including operating an unauthorized platform or improper token issuance, can still become enforceable immediately.

A deliberately cautious pilot

Vietnam introduced the pilot through Resolution 05 on Sept. 9, 2025, creating a five-year regulated framework covering issuance, custody, trading, and licensed service providers. The framework initially permits locally issued crypto assets to be offered only to foreign investors, and eligible tokens must be backed by real-world assets rather than representing securities or fiat currencies.

The real-world-asset focus was visible in the venue for the announcement itself, the Vietnam RWA Summit 2026, and it explains why institutional capital requirements are so strict. Vietnam is not trying to license offshore-style retail exchanges. It is building a tightly permissioned market for tokenized assets with banks and securities firms at the center.

For the five unnamed applicants, the path forward runs through capital verification, security certification, and a final Ministry of Finance decision. For everyone else, the message from Hanoi is that the pilot is moving, but on its own terms, and the first license, whenever it comes, will start a six-month clock that fundamentally reshapes how Vietnamese traders access crypto.