Vietnamese have taken to buying and selling gold directly through social media groups to circumvent traditional trading avenues, namely through gold stores, and more recently banks, according to VN Express. This is amid reports that consumers have had difficulty accessing gold through said traditional channels.
The Vietnamese gold price has been out of sync with the world gold price for some time now, at points up to 20 percent higher. This led to the State Bank selling gold from its reserves at a fixed price to try and bring the price down. However, it looks a lot like it is only releasing a limited supply that is insufficient to meet demand, ergo consumers are turning to other sales channels.
The aforementioned VN Express article notes that gold has been listed for sale on these channels for up to VND 3 million higher than the official price, though notably it does not confirm that there have been any sales at these prices. That said, if this were true it would further exacerbate the problem with consumers able to buy at official outlets and then sell online almost straight away to make a quick profit.
Needless to say, this system is unsustainable and something will eventually need to give.
See also: The Gold Price in Vietnam: Explained