Vietnam has banned its banks from handling bitcoins, saying the virtual currency is not legal tender in the communist nation.
Bitcoin, invented in the wake of the global financial crisis, is a form of cryptography-based e-money that offers a largely anonymous payment system, but its value is highly volatile.
“The ownership, trading and use of bitcoin and other virtual money as an asset carries potential risks for users,” the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
It warned against investing in bitcoin or processing transactions using the crypto-currency, saying it was forced to act after seeing a rise in its use on “some trading floors.”
The currency is not widely used in Vietnam, but the bitcoin investor community is reported to be expanding rapidly.
“Since people believe bitcoin would become more valuable in the future, they tend to hoard bitcoins as they hoard gold,” Le Huy Hoa, a member of a bitcoin forum in Vietnam, was quoted as saying by the VietnamNet news Web site.
The world’s bitcoin community was shaken on Tuesday by the disappearance of its biggest exchange, Japan-based MtGox. In Tokyo on Thursday night, investors were calling for a legal probe and possible criminal action against the chief executive of the embattled MtGox, Mark Karpeles.
Japan’s finance minister said yesterday he always thought Bitcoin was suspect and said the country might take action, while US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the US central bank had no powers to control the unit, which she said would be very difficult to regulate.
Bitcoin’s rollercoaster week showed signs of settling down yesterday, trading around US$567 at 5:45am, down about 1.3 percent for 24 hours, according to the Coindesk index.
In Vietnam, a bitcoin was trading at roughly 6 million Vietnamese dong (US$300) this week, down from about US$1,000 last month, according to VietnamNet.
Some other countries, including Russia and China, have heavily restricted how bitcoins can be used.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
From George Clooney to LeBron James, celebrities in the US have cashed in on tequila’s soaring popularity, but in Mexico, producers of the agave plant used to make the country’s most famous liquor are nursing a nasty hangover. Instead of bringing a long period of prosperity for farmers of the spiky succulent, the tequila boom has created a supply glut that sent agave prices slumping. Mexican tequila exports surged from 224 million liters in 2018 to a record 402 million last year, according to the Tequila Regulatory Council, which oversees qualification for the internationally recognized denomination of origin label. The US, Germany, Spain,
RSS