Vietnam’s economic boom has led to increased wealth and a surge in demand for diverse investment products, particularly digital assets. Despite the legal grey area surrounding digital assets in Vietnam, the number of digital asset users has outstripped stock account holders in 2024, growing from 2.06 million in 2019 to estimates ranging between 10.15 million (Statista 2023) to 20.1 million (Triple A 2023), compared to 8.66 million stock accounts as illustrated in Figure E1. According to Chainalysis (2022), Vietnam recorded over $100 billion worth of digital asset transactions on the blockchain between July 2021 and June 2022. This figure does not even include the trading volume on centralised exchanges, which are estimated to be in the tens of billions USD in Vietnam each month (VN Express 2023). The shift towards digital assets, underscored by Vietnam’s ranking in the top 5 of the Chainalysis Digital Asset Adoption Index for four consecutive years, reflects the robust engagement of Vietnamese retail investors with digital assets, even as they navigate a landscape with limited regulated institutional support. The high retail investor interest in digital assets provides an opportunity for Vietnam to develop its capital market and enhance financial inclusion, aligning with global trends towards increased retail investor influence. However, the absence of a regulated market infrastructure for digital assets, exemplified by the large volume of unregulated transactions, has resulted in a low level of investor protection…
