A Vietnamese cryptocurrency investor looks at the latest bitcoin values on a laptop in Hanoi on Thursday last week. However, what once looked like first-mover advantage increasingly looks like a liability as investors stare down a crypto winter. Vietnamese crypto start-ups hawking everything from NFTs to blockchain-based lending and trading services have been hammered, with bankruptcies and layoffs roiling the industry. Hanoi has also announced a five-year crypto trading pilot program, which would allow Vietnamese firms to issue digital assets. However, that is cold comfort for the nearly 55 percent of individual Vietnamese crypto investors who according to one market analysis reported losses last year.

Source: Taipei Times February 15, 2026 17:15 UTC