Vietnam ranks fourth globally in grassroots crypto adoption and 17-21 million of its 101.6 million people hold digital assets, said Vidit Agrawal, Vice President, Partnerships & Business Development, APAC, at Circle.
Despite that adoption, digital assets remain limited as a means of payment, Vidit Agrawal pointed out in a commentary on Thursday. Stablecoins are likely to add the most value in cross-border settlement rather than domestic payments, the executive added.
Vidit Agrawal noted that domestic payments are already efficient. QR payments, mobile banking, and digital wallets are widely used. The NAPAS 24/7 real-time network and QR clearing can move funds instantly.
The main friction lies in cross-border flows, which must pass through correspondent-banking schedules, State Bank of Vietnam foreign-exchange clearing, and multi-day delays. To pay recipients instantly in Vietnamese dong, providers often hold large offshore dollar reserves to pre-fund incoming payments.
He cites two examples. One cross-border provider serving Vietnamese importers said it pre-funds dollar liquidity overseas up to three days ahead to cover supplier payments over weekends, when correspondent banks close.
A licensed remittance aggregator handling high-volume corridors into Ho Chi Minh City said settlement delays between foreign partners and local banks tie up working capital during peak remittance periods.
Vidit Agrawal argues that a dollar stablecoin such as USDC could sit inside the international settlement leg, while the recipient still receives dong through existing domestic rails. The customer’s payment experience would not change.
On regulation, he outlines some tracks. The first is a five-year national pilot for regulated crypto trading and service providers under Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP.
The second is the international financial centre framework, which covers Ho Chi Minh City, focused on enterprise banking, and Da Nang, focused on startups and green innovation.
The third is a Da Nang sandbox for controlled testing of new technology. Since January 1, 2026, digital assets have been recognized as property under the Law on Digital Technology Industry 2025. However, the law states that digital assets are not legal tender and may not be used as a lawful payment method for goods and services.
Resolution 05 excludes digital forms of fiat currency from its definition of crypto assets. Its pilot rules emphasize dong-denominated settlement and tokenization of real-world assets rather than domestic stablecoin issuance.
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