Ministry of Finance (MoF) of Vietnam intends to prohibit the imports cryptocurrency mining equipment, at least for now. The agency argues the ban is essential due to the difficulty in regulating the crypto industry, VnExpress reports.
Ministers have submitted a formal document outlining the issue to the country’s Prime Minister who has earlier called for a stricter control on all cryptocurrency related activities.
The document also refers to the case where the lack of regulation has led to numerous people being cheated out of money in the case of Modern Tech Corp. which was: “accused [of] over VND 15 trillion [~US$656 million] of fraud by more than 32.000 people through its Ifan and Pincoin virtual currency investment models.”
Therefore, the ministry sights the increasing need to protect the people from any future fraud activity.
Despite the cryptocurrencies being illegal in Vietnam, according to VN Express, during the first four months of 2018, around 6.300 mining installations were delivered to Vietnam. While during the whole of 2017, 9.300 units of equipment were imported into the country.
Earlier in May, Vietnamese government seized Bitcoin Vietnam domain. The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has also fined the company 40 million VND (approximately $1758) for illegal social networking and setting up a forbidden website.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova