VIETNAM Trends and Developments Contributed by: Stephen Le Hoang Chuong, Le & Tran
Investment and Business Law Current law does not prohibit investment in busi- nesses related to cryptocurrency. In the list of businesses that are banned from investment, and conditional businesses and professions specified in Articles 6 and 7 of the 2020 Law on Investment, business activities related to cryp- tocurrency are not listed. Based on the principle that “everyone has the right to freely conduct business and professions that are not prohib- ited by law” under Article 33 of the Constitution, corporations that conduct business activities, or buy, sell, transfer, and mobilise capital using cryptocurrency, are not prohibited. Taking advantage of this loophole, in recent times, many organisations and individuals have established investment platforms or cryptocur- rency trading platforms on the basis of a pyra- mid scheme and “ghost” trading platforms to mobilise money from “investors”. Meanwhile, “investors” are pouring money into these plat- forms without carefully studying the potential risks and drawbacks of cryptocurrency trading, only seeing the immediate benefits of quick, high-profit margins from the pyramid scheme. However, when an “incident” occurs, such as the collapse of the cryptocurrency investment platforms, the “investors” are typically shocked and realise that reclaiming their assets from the platforms is impossible. Criminal Law In addition, according to the amended Article 206 on the crime of violating regulations on banking activities and other activities related to banking activities found in the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), dated 1 January 2018, any person who commits acts, including acts of issuing, providing, and using payment instruments causing property damage from VND100,000-300,000 to less than VND300
million will be fined from VND50-300 million or imprisoned from six months to three years. The State Bank of Vietnam has also repeatedly affirmed that Bitcoin and other similar crypto- currencies are not legal means of payment in Vietnam. On 21 July 2017, the State Bank of Vietnam sent Official Letter No 5747/NHNN-PC to the government office, to respond to these cryptocurrency issues. Trends Related to Cryptocurrency Cases Recently, the Court of Ho Chi Minh City held a trial in a criminal case against 16 defendants for the crime of “robbery” according to Article 168.4 of the 2015 Penal Code. The amount of stolen electronic money was 168 Bitcoins, which was roughly equivalent to more than VND37 billion or USD1.6 million. Initially, after the Supreme People’s Procuracy completed the indictment and proposed to prosecute the defendants, there were many different opinions regarding the merit of the prosecution of the defendants for the crime of robbery. Vietnam’s current legal framework does not rec- ognise cryptocurrency (including Bitcoin) as a form of legal tender or a means of payment. This ambiguity raised questions about the applicabil- ity of robbery charges in this case. Convicting the defendants would effectively acknowledge Bitcoin as a form of property. There is a different view that, although Bitcoin is not considered money, the rights of the holder cannot be denied, and Bitcoin can be valued at a specific amount of money. The 2015 Civil Code stipulates that property rights are rights that can be valued in money. Thus, rights that can be converted and evaluated according to a specific monetary value are considered property rights. Accordingly, Bitcoin is considered a prop-
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