Bitcoin trading floor to be established in April
Bitcoin Vietnam Joint Stock Company, in partnership with Israeli company Bit2C, has established the first online Bitcoin trading floor (VBTC) in Viet Nam, according to its recent press release.
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| Yoko Coffee on Cao Ba Quat street accepts Bitcoin payment. — Photo dantri.com.vn |
The company announced that VBTC is expected to open to the public in April and also said it expected VBTC to be a foundation for transactions in the Vietnamese market.
On its website, Bitcoin Vietnam focuses on four strong points: legal responsibility, safety, technology and liquidity. The enterprise affirmed that this is the first Bitcoin trading floor in Viet Nam that has a legal business registration.
The announcement regarding the establishment of VBTC has come nearly one month after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) stated that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are neither money nor legal forms of payment in Viet Nam. The SBV also noted that credit institutions are not allowed to use Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as money or a form of payment in providing services to clients.
After that, companies accepting payment in Bitcoin changed their strategy by considering it a product and using it to get other goods in exchange. According to current regulations, enterprises that regard Bitcoin as a product need permission from the Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Talking to Vnexpress, an online newspaper, a representative of the agency said that Bitcoin Vietnam would sell products through a website but had not registered to establish a trading floor. The management agency did not accept the documents that were submitted for registration to open the website for selling products.
"Bitcoin has not been regulated as a product or service in any current legal documents in Viet Nam. Therefore, it has not been accepted, according to the contents of the amended decree on e-commerce," the representative stated.
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| Bitcoin Vietnam Joint Stock Company has cooperated with Bit2C from Israel to open the first Bitcoin trading floor in Viet Nam. — Photo vnexpress.net |
He added that according to current regulations, enterprises and organisations had to provide customers with all available information on the characteristics of their products and services. He claimed that Bitcoin Vietnam had not complied with these regulations and did not have any legal foundation to establish a trading floor.
Bitcoin Vietnam Joint Stock Company was established at the end of 2013 and started operations at the beginning of March 2014. It has launched Bitcoin trading services to enable users in Viet Nam to sell and purchase Bitcoins in unlimited numbers.
Bit2C was established in Israel in 2012. On its website, the company introduces itself as the first Israeli company to provide a monetary exchange system for Bitcoins and points out that it offers the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world .
In the press release, representatives of the two firms said that the Bitcoin has never been banned in Viet Nam.
Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that is not issued by either the government or by financial institutions but is created and operated by open source software in peer-to-peer technology.
It was first used in transactions on the Mt. Gox trading floor in June 2010. Until 2013, Bitcoin was used as a means of payment and in transactions and was also an asset for investment in many countries. Mt. Gox, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, was one of the two largest Bitcoin trading floors in the world before it was closed in February. — VNS
