Vietnam moves to tax crypto trades like securitie

Under the consultation draft, crypto transfers and trading would be treated as non-taxable for value-added tax purposes, while individuals would pay the 0.1% tax on the value of each transaction regardless of residency status whenever a transfer is processed via a licensed platform. For Vietnam-based institutions, the draft sets corporate income tax at 20% on profits from crypto-asset transfers, calculated as the selling price minus purchase price and directly related expenses.

The proposed framework also seeks to formalize what counts as a crypto asset, describing it as a digital asset that relies on cryptographic or similar technologies for issuance, storage, and verification of transfers. Alongside the tax language, the draft outlines operational constraints for exchanges and market operators, including a high minimum charter-capital threshold of 10 trillion Vietnamese dong (roughly $400 million range) for firms that want to run a digital-asset exchange, and a cap that would limit foreign ownership to 49% of an exchange’s equity.

The tax proposal lands as Vietnam pushes its planned, regulated crypto market from concept into licensing mechanics. The State Securities Commission said applications for administrative procedures tied to digital-asset trading platforms would be accepted starting Jan. 20, 2026, positioning the licensing track as part of a broader pilot intended to bring trading activity under formal oversight.

Vietnam began a five-year pilot for a regulated crypto-asset market in September 2025, and the draft tax circular sits inside that broader attempt to move crypto activity into a supervised perimeter. The draft also ties the pilot to domestic settlement rails: during the pilot phase, offering, issuance, trading, and payment activities involving crypto assets must be conducted in Vietnamese dong, according to the consultation materials described in local reporting.

The sequencing reflects a practical reality: a turnover tax is mechanically simpler to collect than a gains-based system in a market where wallets, venues, and cross-border flows can complicate cost-basis tracking. By anchoring tax collection to licensed intermediaries, authorities can attach reporting and withholding-like controls to a narrow set of regulated entities, while leaving corporate taxation on a more conventional profit-after-costs footing for Vietnam-incorporated institutions.

Vietnam’s push comes against a backdrop of high grassroots usage. The country has ranked among the world’s top markets for crypto adoption in recent global tracking, a contrast with the stringent capital bar being set for would-be domestic exchanges.