Vietnam’s State Securities Commission Bans Crypto-Related Activities

Vietnam’s State Securities Commission Bans Crypto-Related Activities
Vietnam’s State Securities Commission has prohibited companies from issuing, transacting, or brokering related to digital tokens. The ban follows a previous directive that urged monitoring agencies to scrutinize crypto asset activities.

Vietnam Government Hostile toward Crypto Industry
While many countries across the world are trying to regulate the budding field of crypto assets, there are still some who are very skeptical about the issue. Some go as far as to ban crypto-related activities altogether, not seeing the prospects the industry might offer to the economy. One of those countries is Vietnam.

The country’s State Securities Commission has issued a ban for securities companies, public companies, securities investment funds, and fund management companies, forbidding them from dealing in any way with crypto assets. As an explanation, the commission cites worries of money laundering and other risks.

Vietnam’s Parliament
(Source: Xinhuanet)

Unfortunately, this is just the latest development in the story about the Vietnamese crackdown on cryptocurrency. In July 2018, the State Bank of Vietnam shut down all support for importing virtual currency mining equipment. This meant an official end to Vietnamese citizens using these machines to approve crypto transactions and earn digital tokens in return. Mining crypto is not exactly illegal in the country, but using crypto as a payment method is, according to the amended Decree 101 on non-cash payments.

As an excuse, the government is citing its concern for the well-being of its citizens, claiming it wants to protect them from potential scams, such as the one that happened in April 2018. As a reminder, Vietnam’s investors became victims of a scam which robbed them of a reported 150 trillion VND ($650 million).

In response to this scandal, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, issued a directive strengthening the control over activities related to crypto assets. Specifically, he sent the directive to several ministries and government entities, urging them to toughen monitoring activities in the crypto assets market.