Binance, Ho Chi Minh City to develop international financial center

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance and Binance signed a memorandum of understanding on November 26 to support the development of Vietnam’s International Financial Center in the city.

Binance is a global blockchain and digital asset company.

The agreement, signed during the Autumn Economic Forum 2025, covers collaboration on attracting investors, developing legal frameworks for digital assets and blockchain, and supporting a regulatory sandbox for digital asset projects.

Both parties will also work on initiatives for startups and SMEs using digital technologies, as well as provide training and workshops for regulators.

A joint working group will oversee the partnership and its implementation.

The MoU will be handed over to the centre’s operating agency once it is established.

🔗 Source: Vietnam News

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

MoU value depends on whether Ho Chi Minh City’s International Financial Centre (IFC) has been formally established

Resolution 222/2025 (Vietnam’s national framework for the first IFCs) 1 took effect on September 1, 2025, and the Prime Minister asked that the IFC start operating in November 2025 2. The MoU will go to the centre’s operating agency only once it exists, which means the entity may not exist.
By November 2025, seven of eight implementing decrees (the detailed regulations needed to activate a law) had been appraised, with one under consultation 3. HCMC Institute for Development Studies (the city’s policy research institute) was advising on the organizational structure 3.
With no operating agency, no enforcement tools, and no final decrees, the MoU reads as a symbolic step until institutions are ready.

Blockchain analytics and custody providers can serve Vietnam’s digital asset infrastructure needs

Vietnam’s IFC includes a financial technology (fintech) sandbox (a regulator-run testing environment for new financial products) for unregulated technologies and business models 4. Da Nang approved the country’s first crypto asset conversion project with a 36-month roadmap 5, which creates demand for compliance tools.
Resolution 5 from September 2025 created the first licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges 6. It sets requirements for custody, anti-money laundering (AML), and cybersecurity.
Vietnam ranks fifth globally in crypto usage with over 17 million users and $105 billion in annual transactions 5. Providers of blockchain analytics tools, custody solutions (institutional-grade storage and key management), or regulatory technology support IFC sandbox teams and licensed exchanges.