Supplement and use of bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies for legal payment is prohibited in Vietnam(Photo: tuoitre.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) – According to the State Bank of
Vietnam (SBV), the issuance, supplement and use of bitcoin and other similar
virtual currencies for legal payment is prohibited in Vietnam.
It has since coordinated additional penal sanctions for such
acts involving these now illegal cryptocurrencies.
In a statement released on October 28, the SBV affirmed its
implementation of the Prime Minister’s direction to develop and improve a legal
framework to regulate virtual currency’s status among a list of acknowledged,
legal and cashless means of payment.
The SBV has finalised and submitted this framework on
cryptocurrency to the Government through Decree 80/2016/ND-CP, amending and
supplementing some articles of the previous Decree 101/2014/ND-CP on non-cash
payment, as well as promulgating Decree 96/2014/ND-CP on administrative fines
in monetary and banking activities.
Accordingly, Article 4 of Decree No. 101/2012/ND-CP on
non-cash payment, amended and supplemented under Decree No. 80/2016/ND-CP,
stipulates that non-cash payment instruments include checks, bank cards and
other instruments as prescribed by the SBV, while the illegal means of payment
are those other than that specified in the article.
Regarding sanctions for any violations in the financial and
banking sector of the aforementioned legal provisions, Article 27 of Decree No.
96/2014/ND-CP states that the acts of issuing, supplying and using illegal
means of payment will be subjected to an administrative fine between 150
million VND and 200 million VND (6,700 USD and 8,900 USD).
As of January 1, 2018, these acts may be subjected to
criminal prosecution, in accordance with Article 206 of the Penal Code 2015,
amended and supplemented in 2017.
On October 26, the FPT University released an announcement on
their Facebook page, in which students at the university were allowed to pay
tuition fees using bitcoin, as they considered it a viable solution, especially
for their foreign students.
This sparked a public debate, with some arguing that the FPT
University’s acceptance of bitcoin was a breakthrough, while others expressed
concern about the coin being a virtual currency not regulated by the state.
In response to this, representatives of the SBV stated that
if the FPT University continued to treat bitcoin as a legal means of payment,
then it would be committing an act of violation under the current law
provisions, and may subject the university to the appropriate sanction.
Back in July 2017, the SBV sent out a document clearly
stating its non-involvement in managing cryptocurrency on the Vietnamese
financial market, and that the acts of initial coin offering, generating and
using such cryptocurrency as a means of payment in place of legal tenders were
all prohibited with established sanctions.
The SBV stated that such prohibition was to keep investors
safe against the coin’s speculative nature.
Bitcoin and similar virtual currencies came to Vietnam in
2009, and had since experienced rapid growth each year in terms of users and an
average daily transacted value in thousands of US dollar, according to reports
from the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC).-VNA