Vietnam will bring a new cryptocurrency enforcement regime into effect on September 1, establishing fines for unlicensed exchanges, improper token issuance and compliance failures as the country moves toward launching its first formally regulated digital-asset trading platforms. Decree No. 284/2026/ND-CP, issued by the government on July 16, creates administrative penalties supporting Vietnam’s five-year crypto asset market pilot.
The highest organizational penalties reach 200 million Vietnamese dong, approximately $7,600, while individuals generally face a maximum of 100 million dong. Companies providing crypto-related services without authorization from the Ministry of Finance can be fined between 180 million and 200 million dong. The same range applies to unauthorized advertising or marketing of crypto trading services. The rules also establish penalties covering customer identification, asset issuance, investor information, anti-money-laundering controls and misuse of crypto account data.
Offshore Trading Restrictions Come With Six-Month Delay
One provision attracting particular attention concerns Vietnamese investors using platforms that have not received Ministry of Finance approval. Decree 284 establishes an organizational penalty of 30 million to 50 million dong for trading outside licensed providers. Under the decree’s general penalty structure, individuals ordinarily face half the organizational amount. But those penalties will not automatically apply to Vietnamese retail traders from September 1. Vietnam’s underlying Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP provides a six-month transition period beginning only after the Ministry of Finance grants its first crypto service-provider license. No provider has yet received that final authorization.
Vietnamese authorities said this week that five companies have passed an initial assessment to operate crypto trading platforms. Applicants must still satisfy additional requirements, including Level 4 information-system security certification. Each exchange applicant must also have at least 10 trillion dong, approximately $380 million, of contributed charter capital. At least 65% must come from institutional shareholders, while more than 35% must be contributed by at least two qualifying organizations such as commercial banks, securities firms, fund managers, insurers or technology companies. Once the first provider receives its license, the six-month countdown begins. After that period, domestic investors conducting covered transactions outside authorized Vietnamese providers can face enforcement.
Vietnam Builds Controlled Five-Year Crypto Market
The September rules are part of a much broader regulatory experiment. Resolution 05, effective since September 9, 2025, established a five-year pilot covering crypto issuance, custody, trading and service providers. Only Vietnamese limited-liability or joint-stock companies can issue crypto assets under the pilot. Locally issued tokens must be backed by real-world assets and cannot represent securities or fiat currencies. Those newly issued assets can initially be offered only to foreign investors and traded between foreign investors through Ministry of Finance-licensed providers. The framework also requires crypto offerings, transactions and payments within the regulated market to be denominated in Vietnamese dong. Crypto service providers face extensive operational requirements covering custody, transaction monitoring, internal controls, conflicts of interest, customer complaints, cybersecurity and anti-money-laundering procedures.
Decree 284 now gives regulators an enforcement mechanism. Failure to verify customer identities can result in organizational fines of 50 million to 70 million dong. Unauthorized collection, storage, sale or disclosure of crypto account information can attract penalties between 150 million and 200 million dong. Violations involving token issuance, including offering assets to ineligible investors or failing to provide required prospectus information, can also reach 200 million dong. The framework represents a significant shift for a country with one of the world’s most active cryptocurrency user bases. Rather than banning digital assets, Vietnam is attempting to move trading into a small number of highly capitalized, locally supervised platforms while establishing formal rules for tokenized real-world assets.
September 1 therefore marks the beginning of enforcement infrastructure rather than an overnight shutdown of offshore crypto trading. The more consequential date will come when the Ministry of Finance issues its first exchange license. That event will start the six-month countdown after which Vietnamese domestic investors will be expected to route covered crypto trading through licensed providers — potentially forcing global exchanges to reconsider how they serve one of Asia’s largest crypto markets.