Bitcoin Vietnam, the largest and oldest Bitcoin exchange in the country, is facing the possibility of losing its domain name. The Vietnamese government is reportedly attempting to seize the Bitcoin Vietnam domain name under the guise of violating laws that ban unlicensed news and social networks, or more specifically, running a blog without permission from the government.
In an interview with Vietnam’s official parliamentary TV station Truyền Hình Quốc hội, the CEO and founder of Bitcoin Vietnam, Nguyen Tran Bao Phuong, stated that the government had issued a warning in April. The said warning may result in the cryptocurrency exchange losing its domain name, BitcoinVN.
While the company has not issued an official statement regarding the matter, the CEO is quoted as saying:
While we generally have a love for our home country, want to contribute to develop it further and build a better future for our children — I am also a businesswoman.
We planned some serious investments into the Vietnamese market this year and providing employment to a few more dozen young Vietnamese by end of the year in one of the world’s fastest growing high-tech sectors. We don’t like the — still occurring — brain drain of Vietnam’s best talent to overseas tech firms and opportunities and hoped to set a counterpoint there.
An anonymous insider has raised doubts about the government’s move, bringing up the fact that the company’s blog has “maybe two articles per month on there — to seize their domain for such a minor offense is a very, very heavy-handed approach”.
More information about the legal proceedings has not been revealed at this time.
