Sandbox’ for Vietnamese Dong stablecoin

Before and after the Genius Act (US) was enacted, the international and regional financial markets responded promptly to the landmark change in the legal environment and cryptocurrency business.

The trend of digitalization, especially financial and monetary digitalization, is no longer a purely technical solution but has truly become a national competitive strategy of global stature.

‘Sandbox’ for Vietnamese dong stablecoin. Photo: Shutterstock

On August 1, 2025, the Prime Minister signed and issued a plan to implement the construction and put into operation of the International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City/Da Nang by the end of 2025, creating a breakthrough premise to realize innovative ideas, contributing to building a modern financial ecosystem, accelerating the development of the country’s digital economy/green economy/circular economy.

There will be many challenges to overcome, but the determination and proactive spirit when participating in this game do not allow for retreat, otherwise we will miss strategic opportunities and the consequences of losing in many aspects will be very large.

SCD – Short name for “stablecoin VND”. This is a “sandbox” model that proposes the idea of ​​a stable cryptocurrency trial version for the Vietnamese Dong, oriented by the State Bank to supervise and select a number of suitable commercial banks/FinTech companies… to be given autonomy to issue.

The design of SCD follows the basic principle of maintaining a stable value associated with fiat currency/or equivalent assets, ensuring both the function of a means of payment/reserve and the role of a “pioneer” paving the way for the Vietnamese Dong to deeply integrate into the regional and international digital financial market.

SCD is essentially a digital currency, operating on a modern blockchain platform, with absolute advantages in speed/cost/automation, while still ensuring the denomination is Vietnamese Dong. The immediate goal of the model is to serve some specific types of domestic financial transactions (retail payments/e-wallets/fast money transfers/microfinance/inclusive finance…).

In the long term, SCD will gradually move towards “internationalization” through cross-border e-commerce connectivity solutions/financial cooperation within the region, first of all with countries in the ASEAN community/expanding channels to attract remittances from markets with many Vietnamese workers…

In particular, if appropriate policies are designed, meeting key conditions on legal/technology/risk management… Ho Chi Minh City/Da Nang International Financial Center (TTTC) can completely directly participate in the SCD “sandbox” model domestically and internationally. Because TTTC is the ideal environment to test SCD with the ability to focus on attracting many financial/banking/FinTech institutions… that are allowed to prioritize the application of specific “sandbox” frameworks, and at the same time have the capacity to orient the internationalization of digital financial products according to the established common “rules of the game”.

This creates conditions for SCD to integrate into international payment platforms such as cross-border money transfer/commodity trading/e-commerce… With its own legal status protected by the State, financial centers can implement digital financial cooperation agreements with large, reputable financial centers in Asia such as Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Tokyo… to gradually expand the development space to reach out to the international financial market for SCD.

The roadmap for internationalizing SCD must first be based on a solid legal foundation and a truly effective application ecosystem in the domestic market, along with prioritizing the activation of the pioneering role of TTTC to shoulder the mission of paving the way for integration for the Vietnamese digital financial ecosystem.

This includes a number of key and decisive tasks: (1) Issuing a national framework on SCD; (2) Testing the application environment for SCD digital financial products through licensed commercial banks and FinTech organizations; (3) Building a modern, synchronous, and interconnected digital infrastructure according to international security standards. The next stage is to take advantage of comprehensive financial connectivity with the ASEAN region with the aim of making SCD present in all key areas of economic – financial relations, trade transactions of goods – services – logistics – remittances…

This is a strategic step with a very large initial spillover effect, both expanding Vietnam’s prestige and role in the region and demonstrating the economic and financial stature of our country, which is on the path of strong growth, creating a solid foundation to reaffirm the prestige and national monetary sovereignty, proactively moving forward and going further in the process of comprehensive integration into the global digital financial market.