Vietnam Blockchain Association hosts 5th VA-VASP Conference

Mr. Phan Duc Trung, Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain Association, underscored the necessity of integrating traditional finance risk management practices with technological innovation to develop the VA-VASP legal framework.

The Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA) successfully hosted its 5th conference on the Legal Framework for managing Virtual Assets (VA) and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) at the City Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Committee.

The event saw participation from key representatives from the Party Central Office, the Government Cipher Committee, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Police, and the State Bank of Vietnam. Delegates from prominent firms such as AlphaTrue, DecomStars, Nam Ha Law Firm, Tether, OKX, Vinotech, ViaBTC, ICP, HoldStation, K300, and Krysos Trust were also in attendance.

This conference is timely as Vietnam approaches the May 2025 deadline to establish a comprehensive VA-VASP legal framework, in line with the Government’s National Plan on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) issued under Decision 194/QD-TTg on February 23, 2024. This framework aims to remove Vietnam from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list.

Currently, the lack of a cohesive legal framework results in VA-VASP regulations being scattered across 19 different legal documents, leading to significant unregulated activities such as crowdfunding fraud and unauthorized promotion of virtual asset services. These activities are rampant, even in educational institutions, often disguised as knowledge dissemination events. Additionally, entities like CrossFi, Mineplex, and ALEO have been reported to hold closed conferences, exploiting their image to attract investments from individual investors. Reports to the VBA indicate that users are defrauded after depositing money into exchanges and wallets with unknown information, including platforms like MEXC, Gate.io, and BingX.

Mr. Phan Duc Trung, Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain Association, underscored the necessity of integrating traditional finance risk management practices with technological innovation to develop the VA-VASP legal framework. He stressed the importance of applying fundamental compliance principles from traditional finance, such as KYC (Know Your Customer), KYB (Know Your Business), KYI (Know Your Intermediary), and KYT (Know Your Transaction) to virtual asset management. These principles are essential to safeguard customer rights, ensure system sustainability, and promote innovation.

Mr. Trung also highlighted the need for community collaboration to establish ethical standards for both the community and projects. He emphasized the use of RegTech technologies, such as Chainalysis, Certik, Elliptic, and ChainTracer, which are critical for on-chain tracing to reduce fraud and scams related to virtual assets.