The deputy prime minister of Vietnam commands the initiative to make crypto legislation for the country.
Vietnam has been one of the Asian regions with a robust anti-crypto stance. In 2018, it reinforced its prohibition on Bitcoin, a matter that the Central Bank had already studied the previous year. He had previously suggested citizens not invest in digital currencies. Instead, the administration was interested in making its own central bank digital currency, CDBC, last year.
But now, it seems to change the course of the prohibition to establish clear policies, that is, legal tender.
According to reports led by various media outlets, Vietnam is founding a legal framework for digital assets. The current deputy prime minister, Le Minh Khai, ordered the Ministries of Finance, Justice, and Information and Communications to join efforts with the central bank and other financial entities to enforce this new package of crypto policies.
The deputy prime minister specifically commanded the Ministry of Finance to determine mutual points and agreements with other regulators and the central bank for specific policies and legislative actions that need to get revised, supplemented, and suggested at a particular time to get applied.
The legality intended for digital assets will get founded to comply with the details expressed in Decision 1255, filed by the Vietnamese Prime Minister on August 21, 2017. Decision 1255 consents to a strategy to create a legal basis to help manage virtual assets, digital assets, and virtual currencies.
Some schemes to regulate digital assets came to the public eye in November 2018. Still, there is no final decision yet because there was no mutual agreement, and essential sectors were betting on the prohibition.
Bitcoin.com recalls that according to a government highlight on the application of Decision 1255, the Ministry of Finance had created a study team focused on crypto-assets intending to make valuable suggestions on the legal framework aimed at the supervision of crypto trading and other activities.
This situation has not obstructed the use of crypto-assets in the nation. According to Bitcoin.com, cryptocurrency ownership in Vietnam has increased on a considerable scale.
The studies and research implemented by that outlet presented that more than 5.9 million people, or 6.1% of the total population of Vietnam, currently own digital assets. A survey conducted by Finder.com shows that, comparatively, Vietnamese respondents have the highest percentage of cryptocurrency ownership.
CBDC Pilot Program
According to a report in 2021, the digital currency pilot would get designed to help the Vietnamese government understand the cryptocurrency industry better.
In this regard, the deputy director of the Innovation Institute of the University of Economics, Huỳnh Phước Nghĩa, said that while cashless payments increased in Vietnam, the recognition of digital currencies by the bank would be crucial to boosting a move towards a more digital economy.
By: Jenson Nuñez
