The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the National Securities Commission are promoting a five-year cryptocurrency pilot program. The application window for this program opened on January 20, with the aim of regulating the local digital asset service market. In this context, CAEX, a cryptocurrency platform deeply integrated with the ecosystem of VPBank, announced on Friday that it had received joint support from OKX Ventures and HashKey.

The primary goal of this investment is to help CAEX meet the minimum registered capital requirement of 10 trillion Vietnamese dong, approximately $380 million—a key condition for participating in this regulatory pilot program. According to disclosed information, these two overseas investment institutions will officially become shareholders of CAEX, along with VPBank and its technical partner LynkiD, thus creating a mixed-equity structure that combines traditional financial capital, international crypto capital, and technological expertise.

Monitored by Woofun AI, it is clear that such cross-border capital flowing into emerging markets through local compliant entities to circumvent regulatory barriers is not an isolated phenomenon. Vietnamese regulators have set extremely strict entry criteria for this pilot program, allowing only a maximum of five companies to operate exchanges nationwide during the trial period—meaning competition will be fierce, and only the strongest players will succeed.

Additionally, the regulatory framework imposes a 49% cap on the foreign shareholding ratio and requires that at least 65% of the capital be held by institutional investors. These requirements significantly increase the barriers to entry, forcing foreign companies to seek strong local partners and restructure their capital structures.

Despite the remarkable growth momentum of the Vietnamese market in recent years—ranked fourth globally in terms of cryptocurrency penetration according to Chainalysis—rapid development has also been accompanied by several serious fraud cases, prompting regulators to tighten policies more quickly. For example, in March 2026, Vietnamese authorities arrested several suspects associated with the ONUS platform, accusing them of using false propaganda to manipulate token transactions and defraud billions of dollars in investor funds. This incident further underscored the urgency of establishing a comprehensive compliance system.

Regarding the specific details of this investment, an OKX spokesperson refused to disclose the amount or shareholding ratio, nor could they confirm whether CAEX had been selected as a pilot participant. They emphasized that commenting further on the regulatory process would be inappropriate but assured that this cooperation would ensure that CAEX possessed sufficient financial strength and technical capabilities to meet regulatory requirements.

Future collaboration between the two parties is expected to cover areas such as technical infrastructure development, security system upgrades, compliance management improvements, and risk control, with the goal of creating a stable trading platform that complies with Vietnamese laws and regulations. In light of potential future market rectifications, authorities have indicated that once the first batch of domestic exchanges begin operating, unlicensed overseas platforms may be completely banned from entering the Vietnamese market.

Therefore, this strategic approach of seeking entry through compliance channels is particularly crucial and forward-looking. The Vietnamese government views the improvement of this regulatory framework as a positive step toward the upgrading of the digital asset industry, while the involvement of international capital provides local institutions with a means to overcome the huge capital barriers, indicating that Vietnam’s crypto market is on the verge of a fundamental shift from unregulated growth to licensed operations.