[Vietnam Plans to Pilot Licensed Crypto Exchanges and Restrict Overseas Platform Trading] Vietnam plans to launch a pilot program for licensed cryptocurrency exchanges as early as March, with a trial period of 5 years. The number of licensed exchanges will be capped at 5, with a minimum registered capital requirement of 10 trillion VND (approximately $379 million). Foreign ownership in these exchanges is limited to a maximum of 49%. According to documents from the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance, five companies have already passed the preliminary qualification review, including entities associated with Techcombank, VPBank, LPBank, VIX Securities, and Sun Group. The Ministry of Finance intends to prohibit Vietnamese citizens from trading on overseas cryptocurrency platforms, with violators facing fines of up to 1 billion VND (approximately $3,800). The ban will take effect six months after the issuance of the first licenses. Analysts suggest that this move could impact approximately 17 million cryptocurrency holders in Vietnam.