OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital are backing a brand new Vietnam-based crypto alternate as Hanoi accelerates efforts to convey one of many world’s most lively retail crypto markets beneath formal regulation.
Vietnam Prosperity Crypto Asset Trade (CAEX) mentioned Friday that the 2 companies have agreed to take a position and change into strategic companions alongside founding shareholders VPBank Securities and digital-identity agency LynkiD.
The funding will convey CAEX’s capital base to VND 10 trillion — roughly $380 million — the minimal wanted to enter a authorities pilot program for regulated crypto buying and selling beneath Decision 05/2025.
The deal lands as Vietnam’s Digital Expertise Trade Regulation, which took impact in January, formally acknowledged crypto belongings and laid the authorized groundwork for licensing, oversight, and trade incentives. Now regulators are pushing to shift exercise onshore via a pilot program anticipated to grant licenses to a handful of home exchanges, a part of a broader effort to limit offshore buying and selling and tighten management over capital flows.
That mixture — authorized recognition paired with managed market entry — has triggered a race amongst native monetary establishments and world crypto companies to lock in early positioning. Vietnamese customers moved an estimated $200 billion in digital belongings within the yr via mid-2025, inserting the nation among the many high crypto-adoption markets globally.
Below the partnership, OKX Ventures and HashKey will work with CAEX on infrastructure, safety, compliance, and liquidity. The alternate sits inside the VPBank ecosystem, drawing on VPBankS for monetary backing and governance and LynkiD for core expertise and digital id.
Vietnam was added to the Monetary Motion Activity Power gray listing in 2023 for weak anti-money laundering controls, notably relating to digital belongings. That designation has been a serious motivator behind the regulatory push.
The brand new framework requires crypto companies to acquire licenses, confirm consumer identities, monitor transactions and file reviews — measures designed to convey Vietnam nearer to world compliance requirements.
For Hanoi, the guess is {that a} regulated crypto market might help restore the nation’s monetary status. For OKX and HashKey, the calculus is less complicated: get in early, meet the compliance bar, and develop with the market whereas the principles are nonetheless being written..
