BY LEVI JOHNSON
Vietnam has commissioned the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance, a research group saddled with the responsibility of coming out with a framework for regulating the cryptocurrency sector in the country.
. The Vietnam authorities took the step to regulate the cryptocurrency space due to the popularity, boom and global acceptability of digital currency.
According to the government, there is an estimated one million Vietnamese already using digital assets, and the expectations are bullish with a 30-fold increase by 2030.
Speaking in this regard, ASEAN in a brief said the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance seeks to gather enough data to act.
It said: ”Vietnam is also witnessing increasing cashless solutions for payments, such as QR codes, e-wallets, and mobile apps. Such technology adoption was boosted after the government’s pushing via the prime minister since 2017, who was expecting to reduce cash transactions by 90% in 2020.
The study will focus on the following topics, which will be centred on the existing legal frameworks in the United States, Japan, and Europe:
To understand the cryptocurrency industry; To recognize the existence of cryptocurrencies by amending the current law; To build transparent, predictable, and efficient regulations; To build responsive legislation concerning the high variability of the market; (…) To recommend structural adjustments by creating mechanisms to monitor the cryptocurrency market through skilled supervisory bodies; (…) To recommend tools to these supervisory bodies, namely powers to issue, suspend or revoke licenses, to regulate business practices, and to report suspicious activities.
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However, the country’s wishes to regulate the digital currency environment come in hand with concerns among the government about crypto-related crimes, including cyber hacks and scams.
The announcement cites the case of Modern Tech, a domestic startup that scammed around $660 million from thousands of Vietnamese through initial coin offerings (ICOs). It adds:
Therefore, implementing a legal device to manage and handle virtual assets is the current challenge of Vietnam. It would also set boundaries to abusive cryptocurrency transactions, which is the government’s main concern.”
