The government of Vietnam has temporarily banned the import of cryptocurrency mining hardware.
As CWJ has reported before, many countries such as Venezuela have changed their import policies regarding cryptocurrency mining in recent months. Today, Vietnam was added to that list, as the local Ministry of Finance proposed a temporary blanket ban on cryptocurrency mining hardware imports.
According to local news outlet VN Express, the Ministry of Finance raised the proposal this Monday, alleging that cryptocurrency mining hardware can be used to launch new digital currencies qualified as “very difficult to regulate.” This new measure follows a tendency taken by Vietnamese authorities since 2017, when cryptocurrencies as a form of payment was declared illegal, with legislation taking effect in the first quarter of 2018. As VN Express reported, the imports of mining rigs have already reached over 6,300 in the first four months of 2018 alone, a significant increase in pace to the 9,300 rigs imported in the entire year of 2017. This increase has also been reported by other media outlets like The Hanoi Times. Vietnamese authorities have increased their calls to regulate cryptocurrency businesses after a scam was unveiled this April, and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged the Vietnamese government and financial bodies to toughen the
“management of activities related to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” warning that the crypto investment space is “evolving in a more complicated manner.”
by Samuel Larreal
