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Due to a possibility of a ban on importing Bitcoin mining equipment in Vietnam, both individuals and businesses of this country decided to stop importing the mining rigs.

Bitcoin mining rigs import drops significantly

Vietnam used to be big on crypto mining rig import until recently. The reports claim that the Ho Chi Minh City’s (HCMC) Customs Department cleared over 7,000 BTC and LTC miners in the last year alone. Additionally, 190 mining rigs for Bitcoin and 350 of them for Litecoin were imported in Hanoi.

The trend continues in much the same way in 2018, with around 3,664 mining rigs imported from the beginning of the year to August 6th, according to another HCMC Customs Department’s report. Most of them seem to be coming from China. However, this situation started to change dramatically in July of this year, and the local news outlet recently announced that mining rigs import has almost completely ceased in the last month.

The publication continues to claim that four large companies imported over 3,000 machines during this year, while the rest were ordered by individuals and organizations without proper import tax code. Finally, the publication stated that entire Vietnam has experienced an import of around 15,600 crypto mining machines from last year to April of this year.

Mining rigs import stops due to a possibility of a ban

While the cease of mining rigs import is a big deal for the crypto community of this country, it can be easily explained. It most likely came as a response to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s proposal to ban the import of crypto mining machines. Not only did this ministry requested an official ban on the import of the mining equipment, but was actually supported by several other agencies within the government, not to mention the country’s central bank, the SBV.

It would seem that the ban proposal came due to the finance ministry’s concern regarding the mining rigs. They stated that the mining rigs are not on the list of banned goods, and are not even on the list of unsafe goods. Because of that, firms and individuals can import them with ease. This also makes them difficult for authorities to manage and control. As such, they allow people to mine cryptos, trade them, an even use them as a payment method, which is not legal in Vietnam.

Another crypto-related development in Vietnam came earlier this year, in April. Back then, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the country’s Prime Minister, officially signed a directive that calls for much stronger measures regarding cryptos. he stated that the directive is to prohibit crypto transactions within the country. Additionally, everyone who notices any kind of crypto-related activities that may be suspicious in any way is now obligated to report them to the authorities.