Why is the handling of virtual currency difficult not only for Vietnam but also for the whole world?

Recently, Hai Duong Provincial Police have prosecuted and arrested Nguyen Tuan Anh and 12 suspects who participated in a Bitcoin exchange rate betting line of up to 2,000 billion VND.

Subject Nguyen Tuan Anh works with the investigation agency.

According to the investigative agency, Nguyen Tuan Anh (SN 1990, residing in Times City Urban Area, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi) bought the code of the binary options trading floor on the Internet, named it floor Vitsa, then attracted many subjects to join as her subordinates.

The subjects have developed a multi-level system in Hai Duong province, Hanoi city and some other provinces and cities to directly gamble and organize gambling in the form of betting on the Vitsa floor at the website address. : http://vista2.trade/.

Participants gamble on Vitsa through betting to win and lose based on the up and down chart of the Bitcoin virtual currency rate; the lowest bet is 1 USDT/ 1 time (1 USDT is worth 1 USD).

From December 29, 2021 to April 8, 2022, the total bet amount of gamblers on Vitsa floor organized by Tuan Anh’s line is up to nearly 2,000 billion VND.

Talk to PV Infonet Regarding the above case, lawyer Le Hang – TAT Law firm said: “Currently, regarding the legal aspects related to virtual currency in Vietnam, there are no clear and fully regulated regulations for money. There are many legal issues related to virtual currencies that have yet to be resolved.

Lawyer Le Hang discussed with PV Infonet about the case.

Virtual currency is in a “hole” when it is not prohibited by law but also not recognized by law, so players and investors are very vulnerable to risks when they are not protected by law. Legally, virtual currency is not a legal means of payment in Vietnam.

Issuing, supplying and using virtual currency as a means of payment is prohibited. According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 105 of the Civil Code, property is defined as follows: “Property is objects, money, valuable papers and property rights”.

Therefore, virtual money does not fall into one of the four categories mentioned above, so virtual money is not considered an asset. Therefore, owning, using, buying, selling and trading virtual currency as an asset will bring great risks to owners and participants in virtual currency transactions and is not protected by law. At the same time, because there is no clear legal regulation on virtual currency, it causes many difficulties and obstacles for competent authorities in resolving disputes about virtual currency.

“Current law does not prohibit investment in business related to virtual currency. The list of industries banned from business investment and conditional business lines specified in Articles 6 and 7 of the Law on Investment in 2020 do not list business activities related to virtual currency.

According to the principle that “everyone has the right to freely conduct business in fields not prohibited by law” in Article 33 of the Constitution, enterprises conduct business activities, purchase, sell, transfer, and mobilize capital in virtual currency. Taking advantage of this loophole, over the past time, many organizations and individuals have set up investment floors, virtual currency exchanges under the multi-level model, “ghost” exchanges to raise money from investors. investment”.

Meanwhile, “investors” are massively pouring money into these exchanges when they don’t learn carefully about the risks and harms in virtual currency trading, but only see the immediate benefit of a quick profit. high profit margin, benefit from multi-level tower model.

Therefore, the solution is to prevent violations related to virtual currency and take advantage of virtual money as a tool to launder money and perform acts contrary to the law.

Because “virtual money” in recent years is a very new and complex field, fully assessing and building a complete legal framework for virtual currencies is a challenge not only for Vietnam but also for many other countries around the world. gender”.

According to lawyer Le Hang, currently, virtual money has started to infiltrate investment activities, civil relations, many objects use it for profit, adversely affecting the socio-economic life of people. People should quickly promulgate legal regulations and take appropriate management measures to regulate the legal relations related to virtual currencies, promote socio-economic development, protect legitimate interests of investors and people and limit crimes related to virtual currencies.

In fact, there have been many cases of fraud from virtual currency exchanges and great consequences for “investors”. To contribute to limiting the consequences of virtual currency and through virtual money investment to launder illegal money, it is necessary to apply the following measures: Firstly, it is advisable to build a legal framework on virtual currency to determine the scope. virtual currency objects are governed by Vietnamese law.

In which, it is necessary to clearly stipulate the exchange, purchase and sale of virtual currency between individuals and individuals; individuals and organizations; organizations with organizations in order to limit the unfortunate risks for individuals and organizations when trading virtual currencies.

Second, the virtual currency business should be included in the conditional business line (such as having legal capital, escrow, security money at the bank equivalent to the limit of issued and traded virtual currency …) and must be granted a license to operate virtual currency business by a competent state agency in order to avoid the case of massive, indiscriminate business, taking advantage of virtual currency business to defraud, launder money or commit other violations other law. At the same time, it is also the basis for competent state agencies to manage and collect taxes related to virtual currency investment and business activities.

Third, there are many subjects who will take advantage of virtual currencies to conduct money laundering and fraud, so the authorities need to improve their professionalism in the prevention of cybercrime in the current digital age. now. Criminal law should clearly mention money laundering through technology, using virtual money is a specific crime in the law.

Currently, the current law focuses on the prevention of money laundering through the banking system, but in fact, this activity is also common through other channels such as business, real estate.. and especially virtual money. Currently, money laundering using high technology is only considered an aggravating circumstance that has not been considered as an independent crime.

Therefore, in order to be a deterrent, to prevent illegal acts, and to launder sophisticated money through virtual money, it is necessary to specifically regulate virtual money and put it into the current Penal Code. Only in this way can we prevent the consequences of virtual currencies and other illegal cryptocurrencies that are causing instability in today’s society.

Tien Anh