Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to conduct a pilot deployment of cryptocurrencies from 2021 to 2023. This was reported by Vietnam News.
He signed a decision approving the country’s electronic-government development strategy. It includes an assessment of blockchain, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities.
Huynh Phuoc Nghia, deputy director of the Institute of Innovation at Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, noted the rise of cashless payments in Vietnam and described digital currencies as an ‘inevitable trend’.
According to him, central-bank recognition of cryptocurrencies will accelerate adoption. Nghia believes that testing will help the government assess the advantages and disadvantages of digital assets in designing a governance mechanism.
In 2018, SBV banned commercial banks and payment-service providers from transacting in cryptocurrencies. In the same year, Vietnamese companies and residents stopped importing mining equipment in accordance with a directive from the Ministry of Finance.
In 2020, the operator of the crypto-derivatives exchange BitMEX, the 100x Group, invested $1.5 million in Vietnam’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, VCC Exchange.
In 2021, a Vietnamese computer club repurposed into a cryptocurrency mining farm.
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