Vietnam’s Military Bank to launch the country’s first domestic crypto exchange
Military Bank (MB Bank), a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence and a top-five bank in Vietnam serving 33 million customers, has partnered with South Korea’s Dunamu to launch the Southeast Asian nation’s first domestic digital asset exchange.
Dunamu is the operator of Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. In a statement published on its website on Aug. 13, Dunamu outlined that the two companies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the objective of forging a technical partnership to foster Vietnam’s virtual asset market.
With that overarching aspiration, the companies plan to establish a digital asset exchange. The deal was signed on Aug. 12 at the Korea-Vietnam Business Forum, an event that was held at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul.
Through Upbit, Dunamu has considerable experience and know-how in the crypto exchange business. Its purpose in this partnership is to bring that ability and Upbit’s technology to the establishment of a new exchange in Vietnam.
Dunamu CEO Oh Gyeong-seok commented on the development, stating:
“Vietnam's potential is shown by the more than 20 million virtual asset holders, annual trading volume of more than $800 billion and the inflow of global top 5 blockchain assets.”
The Dunamu CEO added that when Vietnam’s proven growth potential meets the Upbit model, it will provide an opportunity to go further than the creation of a crypto exchange, with the development and design of “the entire national digital financial infrastructure based on trust.”
Growing and developing Vietnam’s digital financial market
This aspiration was shared by Military Bank Chairman Liu Zongtai, who stated:
“In the future, Vietnam and Korea, Military Bank and Upbit will work together to grow and develop Vietnam's digital financial market as reliable cooperation partners.”
As well as sharing its technology and infrastructure, Dunamu will also advise the company on matters such as regulatory compliance and investor protection.
Vietnam has previously been hailed as a market that is seeing a significant level of crypto adoption. According to Statista, the market is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years. Crypto user penetration has been forecast to reach over 21% by 2026.
The Vietnamese government has also been putting things in order to accommodate crypto assets. In June, the Vietnamese National Assembly passed the Digital Technology Industry Law. The legislation goes some way in providing regulatory clarity, with the categorization of virtual assets and crypto assets.
Last October, the authorities set out a blockchain strategy for the Southeast Asian nation, with the aspiration of achieving regional leadership relative to the digital assets sector by 2030.
Upbit is a significant player in the crypto sector. According to CoinMarketCap data, it’s the fourth-largest spot exchange platform globally, measured in terms of trading volume. For the month of July, it achieved a trading volume of $110.21 billion, trailing Bitget at $126.05 billion and Bybit at $122.3 billion, while Binance led the market with $683.41 billion.
