Police in Vietnam said they busted a multi-billion-dollar scam that centred on selling fake digital currency. The case exposed how Ponzi schemes have preyed on the wealth of Vietnamese citizens, ripping off the veil of the so-called "crypto gold rush" in Southeast Asia.

A Vietnamese flag fluttering in front of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum on May 26, 2025. AFP

Vietnam shares a land border with China, and traditional national boundaries are being diluted by the internet. This case also serves as a reminder for China and other Southeast Asian countries to enhance cross-border police cooperation, preventing online fraud groups from moving to neighboring countries to continue their operations after a crackdown in Vietnam.

The so-called "fake digital currencies" have no underlying blockchain technology support or legitimate projects behind them; they are purely strings of numbers manipulated by the operators behind the scenes. Scammers use pitches promising "high returns with low risks" and recruit participants through social networks (such as Zalo and Facebook) as well as in-person seminars.

Vietnam has a large young population who love using the internet and have a strong aspiration for "getting rich quickly". They are highly susceptible to the myth of becoming wealthy through crypto trading. Some criminal groups use Vietnam as a base while hosting their servers overseas, such as in Cambodia. By laundering funds through USDT, the criminals increased the difficulty in police tracking.

The Vietnamese police’s high-profile announcement of the "multi-billion-dollar" scale of the case and the arrest of multiple individuals demonstrates that the government can no longer tolerate the impact of financial fraud on social stability. The fact that such a complex case could be cracked shows that Vietnamese law enforcement agencies have begun to align with international anti-money laundering standards.