Vietnam's Finance Minister Nguyen Van Thang had a meeting with Bybit CEO Ben Zhou on April 17 at the Ministry’s headquarters to discuss potential collaboration in the digital asset sector. This meeting was a significant step towards developing cooperation to establish a legal framework for digital assets in Vietnam and to launch the country's first virtual asset exchange.
According to the Ministry of Finance's official website, Ben Zhou, one of the co-founders of Bybit, along with his team, held discussions with leaders of various departments of the Ministry on the morning of April 17. Zhou is currently exploring opportunities in Vietnam's digital asset market and has expressed interest in working together and investing in the country.
During the meeting, Zhou also addressed a recent security breach in which Bybit encountered a hack resulting in a loss of approximately $1.5 billion. However, he reassured that all affected investors were fully compensated. Zhou emphasized that the incident did not impact users or cause significant disruptions due to Bybit's transparent operations and uninterrupted withdrawal services, ensuring that user assets are backed on a 1:1 basis.
Finance Minister Nguyen Van Thang appreciated Bybit's cooperative approach and recognized the rapid global growth of blockchain technology and digital assets, especially in Vietnam, where the market is expanding notably. The Minister highlighted Vietnam's initiatives to propose a resolution to the government for establishing a regulated digital asset exchange in the country and welcomed Bybit's offer to support various aspects such as training, risk control, operational processes, and legal framework development in Vietnam.
In addition to the meeting with the Ministry of Finance, Ben Zhou had a private discussion with Nguyen Duy Hung, CEO of SSI Securities Corporation, about the future of finance and digital assets. SSI, a well-established securities firm in Vietnam’s stock market, recently partnered with Tether and KuCoin to promote blockchain startups in the country and announced the launch of SSI Digital Ventures, an investment platform with an initial fund of $200 million, potentially increasing to $500 million through collaborations with more partners to support blockchain startups in Vietnam.
Vietnam is currently intensifying its efforts to regulate digital assets, with the government taking steps to classify various forms of digital assets and pilot digital asset exchanges in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang to ensure transparent trading environments, minimize investor risks, and combat illegal activities like money laundering. General Secretary To Lam assigned One Mount Group to develop a Layer 1 blockchain network named “Make in Vietnam” with a significant investment of up to $500 million.
The interactions between Bybit, the Ministry of Finance, and SSI signify a unique engagement between the Vietnamese government and a prominent crypto firm amid the legal ambiguity surrounding crypto trading. Despite this uncertainty, Vietnam has emerged as a significant player in the global crypto landscape, ranking 5th in the 2024 Global Crypto Adoption Index by Chainalysis, with over 17 million crypto asset holders and blockchain-related capital flows exceeding $105 billion between 2023 and 2024.