State Securities Commission of Vietnam is moving the crypto-asset market into operator build-out
The 24 February 2026 build-and-operate statement matters because it follows a five-year pilot, a capped-provider model, and a live two-stage licensing workflow led by the Ministry of Finance with the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Public Security in the approval chain.
Key takeaways
- • By 24 February 2026, Vietnam’s crypto-asset market had moved beyond exploratory policy language.
- • The Government had already authorized a five-year pilot, capped the market at up to five service providers selected through a Ministry of Finance-led process, required VND-denominated trading and payment, and opened a formal licensing intake path through the State Securities Commission.
- • The Chair’s 24 February statement therefore reads as an implementation signal: operator formation and market-operating design were underway.
Trigger
Các Nhà đầU Tư Kỳ Vọng TTCK Việt Nam Năm 2026 Sẽ Tiếp Tục Bứt Phá
Speaking in a Government news interview on 24 February 2026, Chair Vũ Thị Chân Phương said the State Securities Commission was advising the Ministry of Finance on "building and operating the crypto-asset trading market." On the same day, Finance Minister Nguyễn Văn Thắng told the securities sector to soon deploy and operate effectively new markets including crypto assets. Because those statements come after the 20 January 2026 publication of licensing procedures and the start of dossier intake, they are best read as confirmation that the regulator had moved from policy architecture into execution planning.
Open source documentSN Desk view
The institutional significance is the market design, not the headline. Vietnam is not describing a permissive retail-crypto opening. Its pilot channels activity through Ministry of Finance-licensed entities, limits selection to up to five service providers, keeps issuance, trading, and payment in VND, and places operator approval inside a coordinated Ministry of Finance-State Bank of Vietnam-Ministry of Public Security process.
Licensed providers may combine market operation, proprietary trading, custody, and issuance-platform services, which makes operator governance, client-asset segregation, transaction monitoring, and settlement control the core questions for any institutional reader. Decision 96/QĐ-BTC makes that architecture operational. It routes first-stage dossier intake through the State Securities Commission’s one-stop unit, gives the Ministry of Finance 20 days to respond once the initial filing is complete, allows up to 12 months for the remaining file set, and then provides a 30-day final grant-or-refusal window with State Bank and Ministry of Public Security coordination. It is not strong enough to say the market was fully live by then: the tax regime was still in draft on 4 February 2026 and administrative sanctions were still in draft in December 2025.