Cross-Border Payments with Stablecoins: A New Direction for Vietnam?

Mr. Phan Duc Trung, Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Asset Association, said that Blockchain and Stablecoin technology bring opportunities for Vietnam to solve challenges in international transactions.

With global cross-border payment flows expected to reach US$320 trillion by 2032, Vietnam is facing a great opportunity to catch up with trends and take advantage of new technology.

At the workshop “Cross-border payments: Global trends and solutions for Vietnam” held on September 30 in Hanoi , experts, management agencies and businesses discussed the application of Blockchain, Stablecoin and new legal corridors to open up a modern, transparent, low-cost payment infrastructure, contributing to promoting international financial integration.

Vietnam faces the flow of 320,000 billion USD in cross-border payments

At the workshop, Mr. Phan Duc Trung - Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Assets Association (VBA) said that the National Assembly's passing of the Law on Digital Technology and the Government's issuance of Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP on piloting the crypto asset market have opened a new legal corridor, allowing Vietnam to proactively test financial - technology models in a tightly controlled environment.

This is a platform for businesses and management agencies to accumulate data and practical experience, thereby shaping policies in line with international practices, directly supporting cross-border payment initiatives.

Mr. Phan Duc Trung - Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Asset Association. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Citing data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Mr. Tran Huyen Dinh - Chairman of the VBA Fintech Application Committee, Director of the Basal Pay project at AlphaTrue Solutions said that the estimated scale of global cross-border payments has reached nearly 200,000 billion USD in 2024 and could increase to 320,000 billion USD in 2032.

According to Mr. Dinh, this figure shows that the need for cross-border transactions is becoming a huge "flow", playing a core role in the international financial system. However, the current main "rails" still have many limitations.

The correspondent banking network via SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is considered the "backbone" for large-scale B2B transactions, but the cost is high and the processing time ranges from several hours to several days due to having to go through many intermediary layers. International money transfer services such as Western Union and MoneyGram help remittances reach recipients faster, with a variety of access channels, but the fees are still high and lack real-time transparency.

It is these limitations that call for an additional “rail” that is capable of operating across borders, 24/7, low cost and transparent that Stablecoins are emerging as a viable option.

Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency (cryptocurrency) designed to keep its value stable by pegging its value to an external asset, typically a fiat currency such as the US Dollar (USD) or a commodity such as gold.

In Vietnam, the World Bank recorded an estimated remittance scale of 16-18 billion USD in 2024, equivalent to about 4% of GDP, making Vietnam one of the top 10 countries receiving the largest remittances in the world .

Mr. Tran Huyen Dinh - Chairman of VBA Fintech Application Committee. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Mr. Dinh assessed that this is an important resource contributing to the balance of payments and the lives of millions of households, but high fees have significantly "eroded" this cash flow. In addition, with more than 17 million international visitors to Vietnam in the 2024-2025 period and about 500,000 Vietnamese freelancers operating on a global platform, there is also a need for fast, cheap, and transparent cross-border payments.

Mr. Dinh also emphasized that Blockchain and Stablecoin do not replace existing traditional payment models in cross-border payments, but can help improve payment efficiency, enhance user experience, security, reduce transaction fees, etc.

New direction for Vietnam?

From the perspective of the world's leading Stablecoin issuer, USDT, Mr. Matthew Crow - Development Director of Tether, believes that the inherent limitations of traditional cross-border payment systems in terms of cost and speed are creating room for additional tools. In that trend, Stablecoin emerges as a new option, not replacing existing infrastructure but can operate in parallel to improve efficiency.

"According to Coin Metrics, in 2024, stablecoins recorded a total transaction value of more than 26,000 billion USD with nearly 6 billion transactions, an increase of more than 57% compared to the previous year. Notably, about 2,100 billion USD (8%) of which came from real payment transactions such as remittances, e-commerce, freelancer payments and corporate payments. This shows that stablecoins are gradually becoming a new payment platform, supplementing the international system which is still limited in speed and cost," Mr. Matthew Crow assessed.

Mr. Matthew Crow - Director of Development of Tether. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Tether representatives commented that this shift is not only of global significance but also particularly relevant to developing economies where remittances, tourism and digital labor account for a large proportion, such as in Vietnam. Incorporating Stablecoins into experimental models can provide more practical data to assess the feasibility of a more diverse payment infrastructure, thereby expanding the possibility of international financial integration.

Mr. Phan Duc Trung - Chairman of VBA, commented that Blockchain and Stablecoin bring opportunities for Vietnam to solve challenges in international transactions. He said that commercial banks need to take advantage of new technology to increase competitiveness while ensuring system safety. According to Mr. Trung, research by McKinsey & Company shows that the cost of processing a cross-border transaction can be reduced by up to 60% if Blockchain infrastructure is applied instead of the SWIFT network.

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh - Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, Member of the National Monetary and Financial Policy Advisory Council, said that macroeconomic risks are one of the management priorities of state agencies, so cross-border payments are a tightly managed channel, linked to monetary management, especially remittance management, tourism... According to Mr. Thanh, the most important factors for the market are compliance with the law, consumer choice and dispute resolution.

Commenting that having a new payment channel is both an opportunity and a challenge, Mr. Nguyen Hai Nam, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, said that in terms of law, there are also bright spots in that Vietnam has initially harmonized the development of technology and innovation with traditional economic activities. Specifically, the Law on Digital Technology Industry has been passed and will soon take effect to create a legal corridor for new technology activities such as blockchain.

However, Mr. Nam also noted that countries still have many different views on Blockchain and Stablecoin, so Vietnam also needs to be cautious, consider and apply step by step.

Mr. Nguyen Hai Nam - Standing Member of the National Assembly Economic Committee. (Photo: PV/Vietnam+)

Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan - CEO and co-founder, Vietnam Financial Advisors Community (VWA), General Director of AFA Capital shared from his experience in foreign exchange management for more than 20 years that diversifying payment channels, specifically Stablecoin, could open up new opportunities, especially improving the transparency of the payment market. However, the application of new payment channels requires special attention to the issue of custody and custody assets to ensure market stability./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/thanh-toan-xuyen-bien-gioi-bang-stablecoin-huong-di-moi-danh-cho-viet-nam-post1066046.vnp