Bitcoin supporters are seizing on reports from Vietnam that more than 86 million bank accounts are being closed after failing to meet a new facial biometric authentication mandate.
According to Vietnamese outlets, including Vietnam+, the closures began on Sept. 1, while another 113 million accounts have already been verified under the new rules aimed at curbing fraud and money laundering.
The policy has forced some foreign residents into extreme measures. A Reddit user known as “Yukzor,” a former contractor in Vietnam, said he was required to fly back into the country simply to update his HSBC account — with no remote option available.
“Does that sound crazy to anyone else in 2025? You cannot transfer your money and have to fly into a country in person to resolve an issue. On top of it all, they said they will close my account this month if I don’t update the biometrics,” he wrote earlier this month.
For Bitcoin advocates, the episode underscores the risks of relying on traditional banking systems. “If users don’t comply by the 30th [of September] they’ll lose their money. This is why we Bitcoin,” industry commentator Marty Bent said on Thursday.
It remains unclear whether customers who miss the deadline will permanently lose access to their funds.
Bent noted that punitive capital controls are nothing new, pointing to similar measures in Lebanon, Turkey, Venezuela, Cyprus, Nigeria, India, and many other countries since Bitcoin’s inception. “It would be naive to think Vietnam will be the last,” he wrote in a separate article for TFTC on Thursday.
Bitcoin environmentalist Daniel Batten added that the mandate effectively grants Vietnam’s central bank “next-gen financial surveillance capability,” underscoring why permissionless monetary protocols like Bitcoin are vital to protect against government overreach.
“Once you use Bitcoin as your bank, and do it correctly, there is no need to worry about your country’s government or central bank deciding on a whim to thrust biometric verification requirements on you,” Bent said.
“That’s a powerful ability that most of the world hasn’t awoken to yet.”
Vietnam’s banking sector rolled out strict biometric requirements in response to rising fraud driven by generative AI and advanced spoofing methods that can bypass liveness detection.
In May, police dismantled an AI-powered money laundering operation that relied on fake facial scans to launder around 1 trillion Vietnamese dong ($39 million).
Under the new rules, customers must undergo an initial facial biometric check and repeat the process for any online transfer over 10 million dong ($379), according to the State Bank of Vietnam. Combined transactions exceeding 20 million dong ($758) also require biometric verification.
Still, some insiders suggest the impact has been overstated. A crypto executive based in Vietnam told Cointelegraph the changes mainly affect foreign residents with dormant accounts, noting: “It doesn’t seem to be a local outcry by any means.”
Herbert Sim, chief marketing officer at AICEAN and widely known as the “Bitcoin Man,” echoed this view. Speaking from Vietnam, he said the biggest hurdles are faced by foreigners who have left the country, as well as holders of casual or forgotten accounts. “The [One-Time Password] and phone-bindings, needing in-person biometric verification, are big hurdles,” Sim added.
