Report contents
APAC · Emerging
Vietnam
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 55 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +4 |
| Inflation 3.4% · unbanked 29% · remittances 4.3% GDP · capital controls 0.58 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.223 |
| Need multiplier | ×0.835 |
| Livability score | 0.546 |
Raw 55/84 = 0.655 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.22, from five components: inflation 3.4% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 29% of adults, remittances 4.3% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.58 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×0.83. Livability score 0.546, rank #19 of 79.
Three findings
Need lifts Vietnam 20 places, from #39 to #19
Grassroots demand is the engine: 29% of adults are unbanked, remittances run 4.3% of GDP, and Vietnam ranks among the very top globally on crypto adoption, with USDT-VND the dominant rail. The capability score is held down by a payment ban and missing utility rails, but applied need pulls the country deep into the global top quarter.
The whole snapshot turns on a single day
The Law on Digital Technology Industry, which recognises crypto as property, took effect 1 January 2026, literally one day after the cutoff, so the 31 December 2025 score still reflects the legal grey zone with the central-bank payment ban technically in force. The legal-status sub-score of 2 is an administrative artefact of the cutoff date rather than a substantive judgement.
Massive activity, mostly not remittance
Traders moved more than 200 billion dollars in digital assets in the year to June 2025, but the bulk is speculation, GameFi and savings against the dong rather than family-support transfers. Of the 14 to 16 billion dollar formal inbound corridor, only a minority moves via stablecoins, last-mile dong off-ramp friction keeping bank and money-transfer channels dominant.
In one line
"Vietnam adopted crypto from the ground up, years before the law caught up. On the last day of 2025 it was still a grey zone; on the first day of 2026 it became property. The people were already there."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 4/4, actively liberalising. The Law on Digital Technology Industry passed 14 June 2025 and took effect 1 January 2026, and Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP of 9 September 2025 established a five-year pilot licensing programme. From 20 January 2026 the Ministry of Finance began accepting exchange-licence applications, so the 2026 edition should re-score the regime materially as the new KYC and licensing rules take hold.