If you have read our recent announcements around the future of service of VBTC, Vietnam’s first Bitcoin trading platform, you already know that significant changes have been underway in light of the incoming regulatory framework surrounding cryptocurrency trading platforms in Vietnam.
Aside from the already announced phase-out of the VND spot markets, our team has also spent recent weeks assessing the broader future direction of the VBTC platform itself.
While the previously outlined opportunities for a future in-house trading platform within the broader BitcoinVN Group remain unchanged, we have ultimately come to the conclusion that VBTC is no longer the right vehicle to pursue this strategy with.
While the platform has provided reasonably reliable service to our users for many years, the reality is that large parts of the VBTC codebase are now showing their age. The platform was originally built more than a decade ago and several critical components would require such extensive restructuring and redevelopment efforts that building a new platform from the ground up increasingly appears to be the more sensible long-term path forward.
This is also in light of the fact that VBTC originally operated under partially different ownership and joint-venture structures during the early years.
Following the full incorporation of VBTC into the BitcoinVN Group structure in 2023, the original reasons for maintaining a stronger separation between the brands gradually diminished. In practice, the VBTC brand continued largely due to legacy recognition and the familiarity it had built among long-term users over the years.
Now, as the broader platform infrastructure itself requires substantial modernization, it also appears to be the right moment to finally retire the VBTC brand and consolidate future efforts around a new generation of products and services operating directly under the BitcoinVN brand umbrella.
Hence, the fate of VBTC is effectively sealed and the platform’s sunset is now scheduled for the end of 2026.
With that also comes the end of what is probably the longest-running Bitcoin-only trading platform in the world.
And just to be sure: if this assumption is wrong and there are other platforms that have remained Bitcoin-only since earlier than 2014 until today – let us know and we’ll give them an extra shout-out. We’re not in the business of taking false credits. 🙂
Existing users & transition period
The shutdown of VBTC is planned to take place gradually throughout 2026, with the final closure of the service expected by the end of the year.
Users will continue to receive updates well in advance regarding migration timelines, withdrawal procedures and any future alternative services that may become available under the BitcoinVN Group umbrella.
At the present stage, the primary objective is to ensure a smooth and orderly wind-down process while minimizing disruptions for existing users.
We would like to thank all users who have supported VBTC throughout the years – from the early experimental days of Bitcoin in Vietnam to the much more mature digital asset environment that exists today.
Few platforms survive more than a decade in this industry. VBTC did.
And for that, we remain grateful.
The destiny of Bitcoin only platforms
In this context, we would also like to provide some cold and harsh reality on what it actually means to operate a “Bitcoin-only” business – especially if you are an exchange service provider operating in a market outside the US, a place with a natural abundance of capital that can sustain niche businesses catering to a well-selected minority audience.
In most parts of the world, you simply do not have that luxury – which is evidenced by the very limited number of Bitcoin-only exchanges operating outside economic regions that can afford to cater to such a relatively small minority audience.
While many outspoken “pure play” Bitcoiners publicly criticize service providers for supporting anything beyond Bitcoin, the uncomfortable economic reality is very clear: many of the same users do not actually support Bitcoin-only infrastructure when it comes at a higher cost to themselves.
Privately, many act rationally in their own financial self-interest and buy their Bitcoin on multi-coin exchange platforms, where Bitcoin trading fees can be subsidized by the enormous revenues generated from speculative altcoin markets.
The stated preferences versus revealed preferences are therefore often quite different.
With VBTC, we ran a very expensive real-world experiment on how many Bitcoiners are actually willing to pay to support their stated beliefs.
The answer, unfortunately, is simple:
Not very many.
Bitcoin-only exchanges simply cannot compete on cost structure with more diversified market places – and the vast majority of Bitcoiners are not willing to pay meaningfully higher fees to trade on a Bitcoin-only platform when cheaper multi-coin alternatives are readily available.
And ultimately, uncompetitive products which cannot compete in the market place simply cease to exist.
If this would not be the case, VBTC in its current form would not phase out its services.
Bitcoin centric vs Bitcoin only
The approach taken by our mother entity BitcoinVN, on the other hand, proved far more sustainable – and ultimately contributed far more to the Bitcoin network, economy and broader community as a whole.
Through years of unwavering support, BitcoinVN effectively kept VBTC alive long past the point where it made economic sense to do so, persistently burning cash and ultimately investing a mid-6-digit USD amount of its own capital to maintain a Bitcoin-only trading platform alternative for the market.
An alternative which, ultimately, was clearly rejected by the market itself.
At the same time, BitcoinVN invested a further mid-6-digit USD amount into Bitcoin and Lightning-related startups to support fellow builders in the ecosystem, contributed to Open Source initiatives and over the years also deployed a mid-5-digit USD amount of its own funds into community initiatives and educational efforts.
Viewed through an American lens, these numbers may perhaps not appear particularly extraordinary. But for a self-funded Vietnamese company that bootstrapped itself from scratch over more than a decade, we believe these contributions are certainly noteworthy.
Moreover, we are not aware of any other entity in our region that provided comparable long-term support to the Bitcoin ecosystem at a similar scale. And again: if we overlooked someone here, we are more than happy to correct ourselves and provide them with an additional shout-out for their contributions and sacrifices made for the community.
Just to be clear:
We will not engage in the far-too-common deceptive marketing practices of aggressively pushing low-quality speculative assets onto retail users. We do not provide such investment advice.
At the same time, we also try to view the landscape objectively – and opinions can reasonably differ. Whether some Bitcoiners like it or not, there are in fact digital assets and token-based systems outside Bitcoin that provide real utility to certain user groups and fulfill specific economic or technological functions for their users.
You might disagree with that, but the data – public and private – speaks a clear language here.
Stablecoins have overtaken classic cryptocurrencies in terms of total transaction volume and user adoption as practical digital asset payment rails. That is simply a matter of fact.
Can they be frozen at the click of a button? Yes.
Are they a privacy nightmare? Yes.
Are they useful? The numbers tell a very clear story.
Are they a “good investment”? Well, you will have a hard time finding us making that case.
So yes, people clearly do find other tools useful to achieve specific outcomes.
This does not mean that you should feel compelled to “invest” your savings into these coins and tokens. Utility does not equal “good investment for my savings”.
A can opener might be useful – and few would deny that – and in certain circumstances it may even become life-saving equipment. That still does not mean you should stuff your garage or basement with can openers simply because they provide “utility”.
If you want to learn about what makes good money, we would like to refer you to the writings of Nick Szabo, especially his epoch-defining masterwork “Shelling Out”.
“For a particular commodity to be chosen as a valuable collectible, it would have had, relative to products less valuable as collectibles, at least the following desirable qualities:
More secure from accidental loss and theft. For most of history this meant carriable on the person and easy to hide.
Harder to forge its value. An important subset of these are products that are unforgeably costly, and therefore considered valuable, for reasons explained below.
This value was more accurately approximated by simple observations or measurements. These observations would have had more reliable integrity yet have been less expensive.”
Think clearly about what this means – and consider revisiting the essay every couple of months to review how your views may have evolved, sharpened or hardened over time.
Developing a sound investment mindset is hard work. You will not get it from the latest “hot tips” on TikTok.
Proof-of-work applies. If you think you can skip this step and take shortcuts, you will pay dearly in other ways.
We recommend doing the work.
With that also said:
If people want to use Tron, TON, Solana or other networks – they can do so. They may very well have legitimate reasons for it.
We will not lecture them over it. It is neither our role, nor is such a paternalistic, top-down approach particularly persuasive.
More often than not, it mainly serves to stroke the ego of the person doing the lecturing by making the other side feel inferior. It is not an effective strategy to create new Bitcoiners.
People begin to listen when they are ready – and on their own terms. And we believe we have enough expertise in-house, and enough material on this page, to help guide people onto the orange path when they are ready to have that conversation.
We will not attempt to force that process.
But if users ask for certain services, and those services are legal, operationally supportable and commercially sensible, we will generally try to provide them.
Because the alternative, as recent examples have shown, is that businesses which refuse to adapt to market realities eventually get outcompeted by those that do.
And to circle back around:
The best way to support the Bitcoin ecosystem is to build and operate profitable businesses – and then reinvest part of those profits back into the ecosystem itself.
Whether by investing into startups building needed infrastructure that improves the wider ecosystem or simplifies access for new users.
By supporting local and regional community initiatives and Open Source development.
By operating Lightning infrastructure that strengthens the network as a whole.
Or by holding Bitcoin as one of your core reserve assets – without requiring the public to finance endless dilution schemes, paper-share issuance or various financial-engineering narratives so the company itself can accumulate Bitcoin.
A Bitcoin-centric approach can work – and the broader Bitcoin ecosystem around it can benefit from such efforts.
A strict Bitcoin-purist business approach, however, is – at least in this market environment – often economically unsustainable.
And for those who still do not recognize the direction of the market:
Within just the first months of this year, Vietnam already saw two Bitcoin-only firms disappear from the scene.
Neutron is gone.
VBTC is going.
And even long-running community initiatives such as the Saigon Flea Market have faced repeated funding difficulties leading to event cancellations.
Running niche Bitcoin-only infrastructure and communities outside highly capital-abundant regions such as North America is simply far harder than many ideological commentators would like to admit.
With all that said – and if after reading all of this you feel somewhat bleak about the current state of affairs of Bitcoin in Vietnam – one of the best ways to contribute to local Bitcoin adoption and community-building is to support the Bitcoin Saigon community.
Over more than twelve years, the community has consistently put in the work to spread the gospel of Bitcoin and remains grateful for any support people are willing to provide – whether in Sats, in words, or, perhaps most importantly, by lending a helping hand in organizing events, initiatives and campaigns.
It is a lot of work.
But then again, true Bitcoiners are not afraid of taking on the proof-of-work.
