The Tuniver NFT collection "Don't Break My Heart" by Vietnamese rapper BinZ (Le Nguyen Trung Dan), the first NFT music collection of Vietnamese artists, has been released on the Binance NFT exchange, with Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze formats. 

Encrypted using the blockchain technology and smart contract of the Tuniver platform, each format will correspond to a certain percentage of digital music copyright revenue share of “Don’t Break My Heart” along with different privileges for fans. Rapper BinZ's NFT has a selling price of 99 USD.

At the same time, the top three rappers in Vietnam - LK, Datmaniac and B Ray - are also making moves to join the blockchain world. Many other big names in the Vietnamese music industry have negotiated with partners to release NFT in the near future.

In 2021, the NFT wave entered Vietnam. In the field of painting, Xeo Chu's first NFT painting "Lucky Apricot Flower" was successfully auctioned on the Binance NFT Exchange with a conversion price of nearly 23,000 USD. Earlier, two Vietnamese artists - Phong Luong and Tu Na – joined a painting exhibition on the Binance NFT floor and earned nearly 7,000 USD and more than 31,000 USD, respectively.

The NFT craze also expanded into other areas in Vietnam last year. During the mutant-orchid fever in early 2021, more than 100 NFTs of orchids were offered for sale on the Opensea floor, such as Ngoc Son Cuoc orchids priced at 10,000 USD/tree, Co Do orchid at 12,500 USD/tree, Phu Tho orchid at 100 USD/plant, and HO orchids at 250 USD/tree.

In the field of tourism, Crystal Bay and Beowulf Blockchain jointly built an NFT online trading platform for hotel accommodation and other tourism products called Crystabaya. This is the first NFT in the tourism and hospitality industry of Vietnam.

In the field of blockchain games, Axie Infinity by Nguyen Thanh Trung sold a digital land plot on this platform for 550 ETH (equivalent to more than 2.3 million USD). Following this popular game, other NFT games such as Sipher, HeroVerse, Space, DotArcade, Bemil… developed on a blockchain technology platform were released. These games tokenize in-game assets, allowing players to collect items in the form of NFTs for trading.

Technology site techcollectivesea forecasts that venture capital funds are pouring money into blockchain. Trends in Vietnam show that blockchain deals and investments will surpass 1 billion USD in 2022. Vietnam has great potential in the blockchain NFT market.

Legal “gray zone”

NFT is "exploding" in the world and in Vietnam as part of the digital economy. NFT is being applied in many fields such as entertainment, fashion, industrial production, and retail.

According to data from Chainalysis, around 44 billion USD worth of cryptocurrencies were sent to smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain tied to NFT in 2021, up from 106 million USD in 2020.

However, NFTs are not accepted in many countries. The NFT market is difficult to control and there are many risks from not having a regulator. NFT assets are being valued solely on trust without a suitable mechanism. Copyright loopholes along with NFT craze-like “bubbles” are controversial issues all over the world.

Experts said that NFT is falling into a "gray zone", causing both business people and players to face legal risks at any time. The issue of recognizing or not recognizing cryptographic products such as NFT items and cryptocurrencies as legal assets is very important.

“If we recognize these cryptographic products as assets, the next question is which of the four types of assets under the current Civil Code of Vietnam - objects, money, valuable papers, property rights – do they belong to or is it considered a new asset type? Although there may be many more legal questions on this issue, the State still needs to soon give a clear position to ensure the interests of both the government and the people," Ms. Nguyen Lan Phuong, deputy director of the Institute for Policy Research and Media Development, said.

According to lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, Director of ANVI Law Firm, NFTs or virtual items are not objects, and certainly not money nor valuable papers. “I think it will fall under the fourth asset type, property rights. However, relevant agencies have not yet reached consensus about it. If recognizing cryptocurrencies, NFT..., we must amend and supplement a lot of laws and legal documents from civil, investment, business, electronic transactions, banking to anti-money laundering,” Mr. Duc said.

From an insider's perspective, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Trung, CEO of Sky Mavis, said that if Vietnam develops regulations and laws in cryptocurrency investment and trading, investors will have a shield to protect themselves in the crypto space. Tax policy and property ownership law is something that needs to be prioritized and finalized soon.

“NFT and blockchain helps to move from physical assets to digital assets. This is a new asset class that brings many benefits in terms of trading, buying and selling, and transferring value. This requires the challenge of a legal framework to manage and support such completely new types of businesses,” said Mr. Trung.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s southern branch, the ministry will prioritize pilot policies for a few businesses implementing viable blockchain projects bringing benefits to society. 

Dau Tu