Hanoi (VNA) - According to the State Bank ofVietnam (SBV), the issuance, supplement and use of bitcoin and other similarvirtual currencies for legal payment is prohibited in Vietnam.

It has since coordinated additional penal sanctions for suchacts involving these now illegal cryptocurrencies.

In a statement released on October 28, the SBV affirmed itsimplementation of the Prime Minister’s direction to develop and improve a legalframework to regulate virtual currency’s status among a list of acknowledged,legal and cashless means of payment.

The SBV has finalised and submitted this framework oncryptocurrency to the Government through Decree 80/2016/ND-CP, amending andsupplementing some articles of the previous Decree 101/2014/ND-CP on non-cashpayment, as well as promulgating Decree 96/2014/ND-CP on administrative finesin monetary and banking activities.

Accordingly, Article 4 of Decree No. 101/2012/ND-CP onnon-cash payment, amended and supplemented under Decree No. 80/2016/ND-CP,stipulates that non-cash payment instruments include checks, bank cards andother instruments as prescribed by the SBV, while the illegal means of paymentare those other than that specified in the article.

Regarding sanctions for any violations in the financial andbanking sector of the aforementioned legal provisions, Article 27 of Decree No.96/2014/ND-CP states that the acts of issuing, supplying and using illegalmeans of payment will be subjected to an administrative fine between 150million VND and 200 million VND (6,700 USD and 8,900 USD).

As of January 1, 2018, these acts may be subjected tocriminal prosecution, in accordance with Article 206 of the Penal Code 2015,amended and supplemented in 2017.

On October 26, the FPT University released an announcement ontheir Facebook page, in which students at the university were allowed to paytuition fees using bitcoin, as they considered it a viable solution, especiallyfor their foreign students.

This sparked a public debate, with some arguing that the FPTUniversity’s acceptance of bitcoin was a breakthrough, while others expressedconcern about the coin being a virtual currency not regulated by the state.

In response to this, representatives of the SBV stated thatif the FPT University continued to treat bitcoin as a legal means of payment,then it would be committing an act of violation under the current lawprovisions, and may subject the university to the appropriate sanction.

Back in July 2017, the SBV sent out a document clearlystating its non-involvement in managing cryptocurrency on the Vietnamesefinancial market, and that the acts of initial coin offering, generating andusing such cryptocurrency as a means of payment in place of legal tenders wereall prohibited with established sanctions.

The SBV stated that such prohibition was to keep investorssafe against the coin’s speculative nature.

Bitcoin and similar virtual currencies came to Vietnam in2009, and had since experienced rapid growth each year in terms of users and anaverage daily transacted value in thousands of US dollar, according to reportsfrom the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC).-VNA