Field Notes
Short, experimental pieces - observations, mental models, or thought fragments that provoke without resolution.
Vietnam's first licensed crypto exchange has not opened yet, but money is already moving into infrastructure, custody, compliance, security, liquidity and bank integration.
Circular 39/2026 lets foreign credit institutions route payments through Vietnamese bank accounts. A foreign bank, a payment rail, and a fintech stand in three different positions. Here is the map.
Vietnam can absorb a $100,000 market entry budget before a company proves its product can sell. Here are the 8 questions I would validate before committing that capital.
Zalo has grown far beyond messaging. With 81.3 million monthly users, Mini Apps, Official Accounts, payments and APIs, it is becoming a distribution layer for businesses in Vietnam. That could matter even more as the country brings fintech and crypto activity onto regulated local rails.
Vietnam has recognised crypto assets and launched a regulated market pilot. Legal clarity creates a route into the market, but operational readiness determines who can use it.
Most founders think a well-placed article or a viral tweet is enough to earn market trust. It isn't. Three years running PR for Web3 and crypto projects taught me trust is slower and less forgiving than that.
I built a full operations stack for BlockPR in late 2025, a sales tracker, a weekly content rhythm, automated reporting. The systems were real. What I underestimated was the discipline it takes to actually run them.
CFD trading in Vietnam isn't illegal on paper. In practice, it's treated as if it is. That gray zone shapes everything about how the surviving brokers market themselves, and it isn't the loud ones who last.
In 2024, a well-funded enterprise client seemed like the account every agency wants. Then the scope started moving, quietly, one reasonable request at a time.
Why I chose not to build BlockPR around cheap Web3 marketing volume, and what Vietnam’s 2023–2024 crypto campaigns taught me about trust.
A lesson from working at a crypto exchange taught me why deliberate legal risk can cost far more than a failed campaign, and how I apply that lesson at BlockPR.