Vietnam is reportedly building a supervised market for tokenized real-world assets, treating blockchain not as a speculative venue but as a new channel for raising capital against tangible economic activity.
The core legal instrument is Government Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP, signed on 9 September 2025.
It launched a five-year pilot covering issuance, trading, custody, and related services.
The Law on Digital Technology Industry, which entered into force on 1 January 2026, supplied the first statutory definitions of digital assets and crypto assets and gave the pilot a broader statutory base.
Together the two texts move activity that had largely taken place on unlicensed offshore platforms onto domestic, licensed rails.
The design is deliberately narrow.
Tokens must be backed by identifiable real assets—property, infrastructure, renewable-energy projects, logistics assets, agricultural commodities, gold, carbon credits, and similar holdings. Securities and fiat currency are excluded.
Only Vietnamese limited-liability companies or joint-stock companies may issue the tokens.
In the opening phase, offerings and secondary trading are reserved for foreign investors, so local firms can tap overseas capital while domestic retail participation is delayed.
Settlements are required to be denominated in Vietnamese dong.
Platform operators face unusually high thresholds. Minimum charter capital is 10 trillion dong (roughly $383 million), paid in dong.
Foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. At least 65 percent of capital must be held by domestic shareholders, with a substantial slice coming from banks, securities firms, funds, insurers, or technology companies.
Information systems must obtain Level 4 cybersecurity certification from the Ministry of Public Security. Client assets must be segregated, disclosures must be complete, and dispute-resolution procedures must be in place.
The Ministry of Finance, working with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Bank of Vietnam, may license up to five providers.
Five applicants have passed the first screening; none has yet received a full operating license.
Officials have said live operations could start as early as the third quarter of 2026 once capital, security, and operational tests are finished.Enforcement is being introduced in stages.
Decree 284/2026/ND-CP, effective 1 September 2026, sets administrative fines for unlicensed services, advertising, and related breaches.
Domestic investors will not be obliged to use licensed venues until six months after the first license is granted, so immediate penalties for retail trading on unlicensed platforms are not automatic.
The sequence is intended to pull volume onshore without a sudden shock.
Regulators and market participants describe the pilot as an alternative to bank credit and the stock market for companies that hold illiquid but valuable assets.
Fractional, transferable tokens can improve liquidity, lower issuance costs, and give foreign investors a compliant window into Vietnamese projects.
Global forecasts for tokenized real-world assets range from the low teens of trillions of dollars by 2030; Vietnam’s large existing user base, planned international financial centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and a national blockchain network are cited as potential advantages if the experiment remains disciplined.
The State Securities Commission has set four priorities: keep innovation inside a risk-managed perimeter, finish the legal architecture after the pilot, strengthen investor protection through disclosure and supervision, and maintain coordination among agencies and dialogue with firms.
The stated goal is institutional capacity, not unconstrained growth.
If the five-year trial produces workable standards for valuation, custody, and reporting, Vietnam could convert a large informal digital-asset market into a regulated venue for real-economy tokenization. Success will depend on execution, continued regulatory precision, and whether both domestic issuers and foreign capital accept the constraints built into the rules.
