User activity in ten major Vietnamese crypto communities dropped over 45 percent within days of Vietnam’s Telegram ban going into effect, according to a report from Tiger Research→view source.

Key details:

Ban enforcement: Vietnam’s Department of Telecommunications (VDT) ordered all telecom providers to block Telegram services by June 2, 2025.
Workarounds: VPN use provided only a partial and temporary solution; casual users disengaged due to friction.
Platform search: Communities trialled Discord and local apps like Zalo, but none matched Telegram’s privacy, usability, and crypto-native features.
Wider risk: The ban highlighted global regulatory risks and the structural fragility of crypto’s reliance on Telegram as a single point of failure.
No substitute: No current platform offers a viable global replacement for Telegram’s role in the crypto ecosystem.

These outcomes demonstrate the significant ability state censors have to shape, disrupt, or even cripple parts of Vietnam’s digital economy, especially when key services are centralised or reliant on foreign platforms.

To the crypto sector and other industries dependent on cross-border platforms, this should be seen as an important indicator of the risks of doing business in Vietnam’s digitals sphere.

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