In past months, the government of the Asian country was opposed to transactions with cryptocurrencies, due to some scams that affected to almost two thousand people
Two Vietnamese companies recently signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of a platform that will allow the country to have its first legal exchange house, according to recent reports showing that, in this way, Vietnam begins to open the doors to the world of cryptoactives.
The most important distribution company in the Asian country, the Linh Thanh Group, will develop the commercial platform together with the blockchain firm, located in Switzerland, KRONN Ventures AG, which gave the information in a press release, published on March 24th.
The exchange house will be now fully authorized. This happens because these companies obtained the respective license needed to operate the exchange house.
According to the document, the Linh Thanh Group believes that working with KRONN Ventures will allow creating a world-class cryptocurrency exchange, as the latter is widely known as a leader in blockchain technology in Switzerland.
The expectation of the industry is that by combining the mass distribution network of Linh Thanh Group, which is the largest in Vietnam, with the world-class technology of
One Step Closer
Historically, Vietnam had been hostile with the cryptocurrency industry. An example of this is that a few months ago, the regulator of securities of Vietnam warned the companies and funds of the country to avoid all kinds of activities or transactions related to cryptocurrencies. The importation of mining rigs was also prohibited.
At the end of 2017, the Government of Vietnam reaffirmed its position against cryptoactives and the use of these in their territory. The Government set this decision through specific laws that regulate the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in that Asian country. In fact, on October 30th of that year, a 2012 decree on non-monetary payments was updated. In the update, cryptographic assets were qualified as illegal. They were not accepted as a form of payment throughout the country.
The issuance, supply or use of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as a virtual payment measure was prohibited. The reasons of the Vietnamese Government, at that time, were an attempt to avoid scams, as it was the case of a Ponzi scheme that worked under the name Bank Bitcoin Community and affected to almost 2,000 people.
A few months later, the Government announced that it would evaluate the legality situation of the crypto-active agents and approved a plan to review the laws in this regard.
Last year, the Vietnamese government dominated the country’s oldest Bitcoin exchange, which was accused of providing e-commerce services without registering them legally.
However, the creation of this new exchange, which has already received the respective permits according to the authorities of Vietnam, shows the interest of the private sector to take advantage of the new industry, despite the obstacles that were imposed in the past. The road just starts.
By María Victoria Rodríguez
