Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance wants to temporarily ban the import of cryptocurrency mining hardware, reported the local media.

The proposal was made on Monday, 4 June by the Finance Ministry. He believes that it’s too “difficult to regulate” the crypto sector in the country. According to Hanoi Times, the decision to temporarily ban the import of cryptocurrency mining devices in Vietnam would have been affected by $ 660 million crypto fraud held in April, with 32,000 investors suffering. Therefore, following the two ICO frauds, the Prime Minister has issued a notice requiring government institutions to more closely monitor the “activities related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

According to the translated version of the report made by Taichinh Vietnam:

“Therefore, to prevent other [similar] possible events in the immediate future, the Ministry of Finance proposed to apply suspension measures toward importing the mining equipment.”

Over 9,300 cryptocurrency mining hardware were imported in 2017

According to Vietnam Customs’ reports, more than 9,300 crypto mining devices have arrived in the country in 2017. The 2018 records show that over 6,300 mining devices have already been imported in Q1. Even if last year, the Vietnamese authorities announced that they are going to legalize cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the Central Bank doesn’t consider BTC a non-payment method according to the legislation in force.

“[A]ccording to the provisions of the law, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are not lawful means of payment in Vietnam,” wrote the Central Bank of Vietnam in October 2017. “The issuance, supply, use of bitcoin and other similar virtual currency as a means of payment is prohibited in Vietnam.”

The number of criminals using cryptocurrencies as payments is increasing, for this reason, to provide safety of citizens, the law enacted only in 2018 forbids those who have more than $ 9,000 of debt to make transactions using crypto assets.