Hanoi's Home-Grown Exchange Pilot: Five Firms Pass the First Sniff Test

Vietnam is launching a pilot license scheme for domestic crypto exchanges, and five lucky firms have already made it past the initial gatekeepers. The shortlist features affiliates of three private banks—Techcombank, VPBank, and LPBank—alongside VIX Securities and the Sun Group conglomerate, proving that even traditional finance is finally FOMOing into the space.

A government resolution in February set the stage for a March rollout, with a Finance Ministry memo dated March 12 officially confirming the five winners. The program aims to bring some much-needed order to a market that's been growing like a memecoin in a bull run, all with minimal formal oversight.

Officials insist this isn't just about handing out permits; they're looking to curb trading on foreign platforms, tighten the screws on capital flows, and rein in the degen speculation around crypto and stablecoins. Vietnam already restricts cross-border transfers, and with many households still preferring to HODL savings in gold or property—driving local gold premiums and inflating housing bubbles—the state clearly wants a bigger piece of the action.

The country holds a solid fourth place on Chainalysis’s Global Crypto Adoption Index, with Vietnamese users moving a staggering $200 billion in crypto through June 2025. That sheer volume, coupled with the new law passed early last year that finally gives digital assets a legal nod, has forced Hanoi to try and balance letting innovation breathe with putting it in a regulatory chokehold.

If this pilot doesn't rug pull itself, Vietnam could soon boast its first fully regulated domestic exchanges. This would give local traders a home-grown alternative to offshore venues while letting the state keep a firmer hand on the capital-flight lever—because nothing says "innovation" like controlled exit liquidity.