Vietnam introduces CBDC project

While the Vietnamese government maintains its critical stance towards crypto, it has announced a CBDC pilot

Decision 942 directs the State Bank of Vietnam to research, develop and pilot a CBDC based on blockchain. It does not seek to replace the Fiat Vietnamese Dong, but will offer an alternative to analogue money. This way, the government hopes to draw interest away from cryptocurrencies, which had boomed during the pandemic while not having legal status in Vietnam.

High tide for the small country in China’s proximity to fall in line with the many Asian states embracing CBDC, making competitors across the globe anxious to catch up. China even hopes to boost their CBDC to the status of global reserve currency, replacing the Dollar.

What Vietnam and China have in common, is a rather hostile stance towards DeFi. Bitcoin payments are registered as a violation of the law and are subject to administrative or criminal sanctions. As a typical feature of crypto-sceptical countries, Vietnam has a rather unclear framework on what these sanctions would be. This is likely to change with the project kicking off, as new resources will be allocated to FinTech and its regulations.

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