Echobit Labs | Vietnam Crypto Insights: Investment, Stablecoins & Community
2026.07.21
Introduction
This piece focuses on Vietnamese users’ real crypto behavior and community culture: from spot/derivatives, memecoins, stablecoins to AI tokens; across the multi-platform community structure of Telegram, X, Discord, TikTok, Zalo/Facebook; and the KOL landscape on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Creator and Telegram Admins. The core conclusion: in Vietnam, “KOL + community” is not a marketing option but infrastructure. Product and growth must center on a full-platform matrix of “community private domain + public exposure + deep engagement + mass fallback.”
一、Investment Behavior: Spot / Derivatives, Memecoin, Stablecoin and AI Token
If one word can summarize Vietnamese crypto investors’ trading style, it is “high risk appetite + high turnover + community-driven.” Tiger Research’s Vietnamese Crypto Community 101 identifies three dominant local narratives today: the memecoin craze (represented by PEPE, DOGE, WOJAK), airdrop hunting (projects such as ZKSync, Blast), and derivatives/futures trading — all share “high volatility, high payoff, and reliance on community signals,” which aligns with Vietnam’s long-standing “high-risk/high-reward” culture. Binance Square’s operational observations support this: Vietnam ranks fourth in Binance’s global country trading volume list, and the top few CEXs concentrate about 80% of the market in Vietnam, indicating strong head concentration and community amplification of trading behavior.
Spot vs derivatives: a dominant leveraged derivatives culture
Chainalysis’ APAC report notes markets such as Vietnam and South Korea show very high derivatives activity, but the drivers differ: Korea’s activity is driven mainly by institutionalization and domestic exchanges, while Vietnam’s derivatives fever is more driven by “copy‑trade culture” in Telegram groups and live-call trading by TikTok/YouTube KOLs. Local CEX operations observe that although spot trading for BTC/ETH is large, the ratio of derivatives open interest to spot volume is noticeably higher than global averages, reflecting young users’ preference for “rapid multipliers.” Fireblocks’ 2025 policy commentary highlights Vietnam’s Digital Technology Industry Law introduced in 2025 will emulate Korea by requiring local fiat settlement and onshore licensed exchanges for certain services, which may materially constrain overseas CEX derivatives business in Vietnam going forward.
High-frequency trading and community copy-trading
Although there is no single authoritative public stat for Vietnam’s HFT share, Tiger Research’s local surveys and CoinShares’ field observations sketch clear behavioral traits: (1) a markedly higher share of Vietnamese users are “online 24/7” in Telegram trading and derivatives groups, where the “call — copy — show trade” cycle drives many intra‑day multiple entries and exits (high turnover); (2) DeFi “spray-and-pray” liquidity pools, airdrop farming and derivatives copy-trading overlap heavily — most users are active across 3–5 communities to increase “signal density”; (3) Vietnamese users are highly sensitive to alignment of “signal — narrative — market,” and a single KOL message can trigger thousands of small trades within an hour.
Memecoin preference: PEPE / DOGE / WOJAK and local “Vietnamese Dog”
Tiger Research lists memecoins among the most contagious narratives in Vietnamese communities. Global memecoins such as PEPE, DOGE and WOJAK receive significant over-allocation locally for two reasons: first, local risk appetite favors “low unit price + high payoff + community meme” assets; second, memecoin KOL-calls map almost one-to-one onto Telegram/Discord group mechanics, making information spread and order placement isomorphic. Besides global memecoins, periodic local “Vietnamese Dog” meme projects erupt, but lacking global liquidity backstops they carry materially higher risk than leading memecoins.
Stablecoin usage: USDT’s role as a “parallel financial system”
CoinShares’ Iced Coffee and Invisible Dollars and Tiger Research’s Stablecoins as Vietnam’s Parallel Financial System are the leading studies on this topic. Core conclusions can be summarized in five points: (1) Vietnam is among the highest USDT-usage markets globally, and TRON-based USDT transfers in Southeast Asia total roughly $341 billion annually; (2) USDT on Binance P2P in Vietnam trades at a persistent average premium versus VND of ~3.35%, with peak periods in 2024 up to 5%, reflecting strong local demand for a “digital dollar”; (3) Vietnam ranks among the top five global destinations for stablecoin-based remittances, with about 7.8% of Vietnam’s inbound remittances arriving as USDT/USDC; (4) many Vietnamese treat USDT as an independent store-of-value rather than merely a trading medium — in bear markets users often convert altcoins to USDT rather than to VND; (5) although Vietnam banned crypto as a payment instrument in 2018, stablecoin usage has de facto formed a “parallel financial system.” The 2025 Digital Technology Industry Law (passed June 2025, effective January 2026) has not yet given stablecoins a definitive legal classification.
AI token adoption: nascent but growing fast
Public data show Vietnamese interest in AI tokens is at an “early high-interest” stage. Consensys’ 2024 global survey reports 62% of Vietnamese respondents are concerned about AI‑generated fake news (a value that is lower than some markets such as Nigeria but indicates balanced concern), suggesting a moderately positive attitude toward AI-related innovations and an openness for promotion of AI tokens. Locally, Bittensor (TAO), Render (RNDR), Fetch.ai (FET), NEAR and other prominent AI-related tokens have dedicated discussion channels on Vietnamese Telegram and Discord. However, most AI token projects remain English-first, which limits rapid diffusion on local platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. With Vietnam’s expanding Web3 user base, localized narratives (Vietnamese tutorials, local KOL education, local CEX listings) will be the key 12–18 month opportunity window for AI tokens.
Sources
- Consensys — Web3 and Crypto Global Survey 2024 https://consensys.io/insight-report/web3-and-crypto-global-survey
- Tiger Research — Vietnamese Crypto Community 101 https://reports.tiger-research.com/p/vietnam-community-eng
- Binance Square — Over 16 million users hold crypto assets in Vietnam https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/1010482
- Chainalysis — APAC Crypto Adoption 2025 https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/asia-pacific-crypto-adoption-2025/
- Fireblocks — Vietnam Is Set To Generate Digital Assets Growth At Home https://www.fireblocks.com/blog/vietnam-digital-assets-growth
- CoinShares — Iced Coffee and Invisible Dollars https://coinshares.com/insights/the-node/por-iced-coffee-and-invisible-dollars-inside-vietnams-stablecoin-economy/
- Tiger Research — Stablecoins as Vietnam’s Parallel Financial System https://reports.tiger-research.com/p/stablecoins-as-vietnams-parallel-vnd-eng
Echobit Labs view
Vietnam’s “spot / derivatives / stablecoin / AI token” quartet forms a clear pyramid: base layer USDT functions as store-of-value and remittance medium — the “digital dollar”; the middle layer is BTC/ETH spot and medium‑term allocation; the top layer is memecoins, derivatives, AI tokens and other high‑odds narrative assets. This structure implies Vietnam’s product opportunities are multi-asset, one-stop experiences: CEXs should integrate spot, derivatives, stablecoin yields and narrative high-odds assets into a single app; wallets and on-chain protocols must solve the full flow of “USDT on‑ramp — fiat off‑ramp — local O2O payment” experience. AI tokens are the newest narrative growth area: 2025–2026 will be a critical education window locally. Projects that build Vietnamese-language KOL content matrices and secure local CEX listings early may replicate the explosive adoption curves seen for memecoins in 2021 and GameFi in 2022.
二、Community Culture: Telegram, Facebook, Zalo, TikTok, Discord and Vietnam’s “Community Dependence” Logic
Tiger Research’s oft-cited line from Vietnamese Crypto Community 101 — “A Vietnamese crypto project starts with the community. Conversely, the project may also end with the community.” — captures Vietnam’s core operational logic: communities are both accelerators for cold starts and the epitaph when projects fail. Local surveys cited by the same report find about 76% of Vietnamese crypto investors consider “friend/community recommendation” the primary information source for investment decisions — a ratio significantly above global averages — which makes “community = traffic; traffic = holdings” the underlying law of Vietnam’s crypto market.
Telegram: the absolute battlefield for trading, airdrops and news
Tiger Research identifies Telegram as Vietnam’s most widely used crypto platform. Telegram groups perform three core functions: trading groups (spot + derivatives, often partnering with OKX, Binance, MEXC for referral/rebate arrangements), airdrop channels (tracking high-value airdrops such as ZKSync, Blast, Linea), and DeFi/DeGen technical groups (discussing new protocols and tools). Representative communities include TradeCoinVietnam, HC Capital, Fomonista, GFI and Coin68 — they are both traffic entry points and the main arenas for local KOL monetization and project cold starts. Structurally, Vietnamese Telegram communities commonly adopt an “all-in-one” large group model — one group covers market updates, call signals, airdrops, AMAs and ad monetization, which for foreign project teams means “one cooperation can reach most active Vietnamese crypto users.”
X (Twitter): KOL branding and news source
Tiger Research positions X (Twitter) as Vietnam’s primary news source and personal-branding platform for KOLs. Since X’s ad revenue share program in 2023, more Vietnamese KOLs have flocked to X, increasing Vietnamese-language crypto content density. Vietnamese KOLs on X split into community operators (independent or contracted with projects) and independent commentators. A key operational caution: the KOL relationship graph matters — Tiger Research notes that negative relationships between KOLs can rapidly amplify FUD inside communities, so projects must conduct “KOL relationship due diligence” before engagement.
Facebook and Zalo: marginalized for crypto but still reach channels
Tiger Research notes Facebook and Zalo’s roles in crypto communities have diminished, mainly due to crypto keyword throttling, stricter ad scrutiny and operators’ fear of being “flagged.” These platforms now mainly serve recruiting and event announcement functions. Notably, Vietnam’s social platform user-base landscape shows Zalo surpassing Facebook: VietnamNet cited Ministry of Information and Communications data (as of June 30, 2024) reporting Zalo monthly active users at 76.5 million, exceeding Facebook’s 72.0 million, TikTok’s 67.0 million and YouTube’s 63.0 million. While this does not equate to Zalo being the top crypto community hub, its absolute user base makes Zalo a non‑negligible foundational traffic channel — especially for projects targeting smaller cities and female demographics.
TikTok: incremental traffic and KOL amplification
Awisee’s Influencer Marketing Vietnam 2025 reports TikTok usage at 85% among KOL marketing channels (Facebook 65%, Instagram 55%, YouTube 50%). TikTok’s algorithmic recommendation makes it a natural megaphone for crypto KOLs, and many YouTube/Telegram-native KOLs are systematically migrating to TikTok for new exposure. Tiger Research’s field observations confirm Vietnamese crypto content on TikTok expanded from knowledge education to real-trade sharing, derivatives tutorials and memecoin calls.
Discord: project-dedicated communities and highly active country channels
While Telegram is the trading battlefield, Discord in Vietnam more often hosts project-specific communities and DeFi technical discussions. Telegram’s openness and ease of forwarding suit broad trading and airdrop distribution; Discord’s role/permission model, bot integrations and channel structure suit Web3-native deep operations. Vietnam’s national Discord channels consistently rank among the world’s most active country channels, indicating Vietnamese Web3 users are at least as familiar with Discord as other Southeast Asian markets.
Sources
- Awisee — Influencer Marketing Vietnam 2025 https://awisee.com/blog/influencer-marketing-vietnam/
- VietnamNet — Zalo Tops Facebook and TikTok in Vietnamese User Base https://vietnamnet.vn/en/zalo-tops-facebook-and-tiktok-in-vietnamese-user-base-2346564.html
- Tiger Research — Vietnamese Crypto Community 101 https://reports.tiger-research.com/p/vietnam-community-eng
Echobit Labs view
Compared with another high-activity Asian market such as South Korea, Vietnam’s “community dependence” has deeper structural roots: (1) Vietnam lacks mature, fully legal local exchanges — Binance, OKX, MEXC remain dominant — so users must rely on “community + KOL” for project signals and operational guidance; Korea operates with four major licensed exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit) that provide official price feeds and certification signals for most users. (2) Vietnam’s English proficiency is lower than Korea’s, creating a digestion barrier for English-first whitepapers, Medium posts and overseas KOL feeds, making Vietnamese-language KOLs essential translators and amplifiers. (3) Vietnam’s Gen Z cultural preference for “trust networks + referral economy” is strong; the earlier-cited 76% community recommendation metric empirically demonstrates this. These structural differences make “KOL + community” a de facto infrastructure rather than a discretionary marketing channel. Any entrant that focuses only on paid KOL placements while neglecting community building, or builds communities without KOL alignment, will likely face “traffic that cannot be retained and signals that cannot scale.”