Ministry to set up research group on cryptocurrency to tighten management

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Finance has decided to set up a research group which would be in charge of studying and proposing policies to manage virtual assets and crypto currencies.

The group had nine members, lead by Phạm Hồng Sơn, deputy chairman of the State Securites Co妹妹ission. Other members are from the State Securities Co妹妹ission, the General Department of Taxation, State Bank of Việt Nam's Department of Banking and Financial Institutions and Legal Department, Việt Nam Customs and the National Institute for Việt Nam Finance.

Policies to effectively manage virtual assets were crucial in the context that virtual assets were developing rapidly but posing risks and might cause negative impacts on the market.

On August  二 一,  二0 一 七, the Prime Minister issued Decision No  一 二 五 五/QĐ-TTg to approve the project about completing the legal framework for managing virtual assets, crypto currencies and electronic currencies.

On April  一 一,  二0 一 八, Directive No  一0/CT-TT was issued with the aim to enhance management on transactions related to Bitcoin and other crypto currencies to put it under control and minimise their negative impacts.

Governor of the State Bank of Việt Nam on April  一 三,  二0 一 八 issued Directive No 0 二/CT-NHNN about measures to strengthen control over transactions related to crypto currencies in which credit institutions were asked not to supply some types of transactions related to virtual currencies to ensure compliance with established regulations about anti-money laundering and forex management.

According to crypto currrency market research company CrytoCompare, at the end of November  二0 一 七, about  八0 per cent of Bitcoin transactions were found to originate from Asia, mainly from China, Japan, Republic of Korea and Việt Nam. Access from Việt Nam to crypto currency websites and trading platforms were in the top five highest in the world, beside the US, Russia and Japan. — VNS