CAEX, formally registered as Vietnam Prosperity Cryptocurrency Asset Exchange JSC, is one of five firms shortlisted to receive a domestic crypto exchange license under Vietnam's five-year pilot scheme, which runs from 2025 to 2030. Vietnam's Ministry of Finance is leading the licensing process and will issue no more than five approvals over the entire pilot period. To qualify, each applicant must meet a minimum charter capital requirement of VND 10 trillion, equivalent to roughly $383 million USD at current exchange rates. CAEX currently holds charter capital of just VND 25 billion, approximately $950,000 at current exchange rates, making the OKX Ventures and HashKey investment essential to its eligibility.

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The Regulatory Framework

Vietnam's shift from an unregulated crypto environment to a controlled licensing regime accelerated in 2025. The National Assembly passed the Law on Digital Technology Industry on June 14, 2025, which took effect on January 1, 2026, formally recognizing digital assets as property under Vietnamese civil law for the first time. The government followed with Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP on September 9, 2025, establishing the pilot framework, and the Ministry of Finance issued detailed licensing rules under Decision No. 96/QĐ-BTC on January 20, 2026. The rules are deliberately stringent: all trading must be conducted in Vietnamese Dong, only Vietnamese-incorporated companies can issue virtual assets, issued assets must be backed by real-world assets (not securities or fiat currency), and applicants must hold Vietnam's highest cybersecurity certification (the Level 4 cybersecurity standard). Foreign investors are capped at 49% ownership in any licensed entity, meaning OKX Ventures and HashKey together cannot hold a majority stake in CAEX. At least 65% of each exchange's charter capital must come from institutional investors.

Vietnam's State Securities Commission has stated that the program aims to reduce reliance on overseas trading platforms and better manage capital flows.

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Who Is Competing and Why It Matters

CAEX's founding shareholders are LynkID JSC (50%), a digital financial services firm, Future Land Investment Co. Ltd. (39%), and VPBank Securities JSC (11%). The VPBank Securities stake links the exchange to one of Vietnam's largest private commercial banks, though VPBank entities hold a minority position in the company.

CAEX Chairman/CEO Nguyen Hong Trung said the company has "completed preparations in technological infrastructure, expert recruitment and international cooperation frameworks."

The other four shortlisted applicants include TCEX, affiliated with Techcombank; LPEX, affiliated with LPBank; VIX Securities; and Vietnam Digital Assets JSC, backed by the Sun Group conglomerate. All five are connected to large domestic financial institutions, but according to current reporting, CAEX is the only one actively working to close the capital gap through foreign institutional investment.

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The OKX and HashKey Angle

OKX Ventures is the investment arm of OKX, one of the world's highest-volume crypto exchanges. OKX was valued at $25 billion following a recent strategic investment from ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

HashKey Group is Hong Kong's largest licensed crypto exchange by transaction volume. It listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2025, raising HK$1.6 billion (approximately $206 million USD). HashKey Capital has also completed the first close of its fourth fund at $250 million, targeting blockchain infrastructure and emerging markets across Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom. For context, HashKey's revenue for the first half of 2025 declined 26% year-on-year to HK$283 million (approximately $36 million USD), a figure that underscores the strategic importance of new market opportunities such as Vietnam for the firm.

The two firms are not new partners. OKX Ventures participated in HashKey's $100 million Series A round in January 2024, according to Architect Partners. Their joint move into Vietnam represents a deepening of that relationship. The investment reflects a calculated bet on the country's emerging regulatory architecture rather than its existing offshore trading activity.

OKX Ventures has also been building out a real-world asset (RWA) strategy. In February 2026, it backed STBL, a stablecoin infrastructure project tied to real-world assets on OKX's X Layer network. Vietnam's pilot rules, which require issued crypto assets to be backed by real-world assets, align closely with that investment thesis. CAEX has indicated it intends to explore asset tokenization beyond conventional crypto trading, positioning it as a potential issuance venue for RWA products in Southeast Asia.

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What This Means for the Region

Vietnam ranks fourth globally in the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Adoption Index. An estimated 17 to 20 million Vietnamese people hold or use digital assets, representing roughly 17 to 20% of the population. Annual crypto inflows are estimated at between $100 billion and $120 billion (industry estimates), the vast majority processed through offshore platforms including Binance, Bybit, and MEXC. Adding further context to the market's scale, approximately 70% of the Vietnamese population is unbanked, meaning a licensed domestic fiat on-ramp could represent the first point of formal financial access to digital assets for a large share of prospective users.

Vietnam has signaled it intends to block those platforms from serving domestic users as domestic licensing proceeds, which would redirect substantial volume toward whichever five exchanges receive approval, according to a March 2026 Reuters report cited by Coindesk.

A 0.1% personal income tax on crypto transactions conducted through licensed platforms would, at full throughput and based on current volume estimates, generate roughly $100 million to $120 million annually for the government, with meaningful revenue flowing even at a fraction of that scale.

For retail users accustomed to trading in multiple currencies on offshore platforms, the transition to a VND-only domestic exchange will involve real trade-offs.

If CAEX clears the capital threshold and receives approval, it would potentially become the first compliant fiat on-ramp and off-ramp for Vietnamese retail crypto users, and a potential gateway for foreign institutional capital seeking regulated exposure to one of Southeast Asia's most active digital asset markets.