Back in 2020, if you lived in Vietnam and wanted to buy Bitcoin with Vietnamese Dong (VND), Bvnex was one of the few options that made it feel easy. No need to jump through hoops with foreign exchanges. You could deposit VND directly, trade altcoins, and even try margin trading-all through a platform built for locals. But by 2023, the website was still up. The logo still showed. The menu still loaded. But everything else? Gone. No trades. No deposits. No withdrawals. Just a digital ghost town.
What Was Bvnex?
Bvnex launched in mid-2019 as a centralized crypto exchange focused almost entirely on the Vietnamese market. Its whole reason for existing was to let people trade crypto using VND-something most big exchanges like Binance or Coinbase didn’t offer directly at the time. It wasn’t trying to be the next Coinbase. It wasn’t aiming for global users. It wanted to be the go-to place for Vietnamese traders who just wanted to buy crypto without dealing with international wire transfers or third-party payment processors.
At its peak, Bvnex claimed over 100,000 users. It offered spot trading for more than 50 cryptocurrencies, futures contracts, and even hosted IEOs (Initial Exchange Offerings) for local blockchain projects. Fees were standard: 0.15% maker, 0.25% taker. Withdrawal fees for Bitcoin were around 0.0005 BTC, which at $45,000 per BTC meant roughly $22.50 per withdrawal. It had a mobile app, and the sign-up process required a Vietnamese ID card and a local bank account.
For a while, it worked. In late 2020, daily trading volume hit between $50 million and $200 million. CoinGecko ranked it #147 globally. People liked the simplicity. You could deposit VND via bank transfer, wait a few hours, and start trading. No complicated KYC beyond local documents. No need for a foreign bank account. That’s what made it popular.
Why Did Bvnex Start to Fail?
The cracks started showing in late 2021. Vietnam’s State Bank issued Circular No. 19/2021/TT-NHNN, which tightened rules around cryptocurrency use. While it didn’t ban crypto outright, it made it illegal to use crypto as payment and signaled strong regulatory pressure. That hit Bvnex hard. Its entire model relied on VND deposits and withdrawals. When banks started blocking transactions linked to crypto exchanges, Bvnex didn’t have a backup plan.
Then came the withdrawal limits. In late 2021, users suddenly found their max withdrawal amount cut from 500 million VND ($21,500) down to 50 million VND ($2,150)-with no warning. No explanation. Just a system update that locked people out of their own money. Thousands complained on Reddit and local forums. One user, u/VN_Crypto_Trader, posted in November 2022 that $2,150 had been stuck in their account for 45 days. No response from support.
Support became a joke. Trustpilot had 37 reviews archived by May 2022. The average rating? 1.9 out of 5. The most common complaints? Withdrawals taking more than 72 hours. Customer service ignoring tickets for two weeks. And then, in early 2022, Bvnex quietly delisted 12 major altcoins-no announcement, no notice. People woke up one day and their portfolios had lost half their value overnight.
The Biggest Problem: No Transparency
Here’s the real killer: Bvnex never showed proof of reserves. Not once. Not even a snapshot. While exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase published regular audits showing they held all the crypto they claimed to, Bvnex stayed silent. ICORankings, a trusted review site, called it “total opacity.” No public order book. No volume verification. No third-party attestations.
And here’s the scary part-CoinMarketCap flagged Bvnex in October 2021 for “suspected volume inflation.” That means the exchange was likely faking its trading numbers to look bigger than it was. That’s a red flag no serious trader should ignore. By Q2 2022, CoinMarketCap stopped tracking Bvnex entirely. CoinGecko’s volume data collapsed from $650 million in August 2021 to just $1.2 million by December 2022-a 99.8% drop.
Industry analysts noticed. John Wu of Ava Labs said in a 2022 CoinDesk interview: “Vietnamese exchanges without transparent volume metrics struggle to gain institutional trust.” Bvnex had zero institutional trust. And when trust vanishes, so does liquidity. And when liquidity vanishes, the exchange dies.
What Happened to the Website?
By February 2023, ICORankings confirmed Bvnex had “zero trading pairs” and “no trade data available.” The website still loaded-bvnex.com was alive-but the trading engine was dead. You couldn’t log in to your account. You couldn’t deposit VND. You couldn’t withdraw anything. The app stopped working. The support tickets went unanswered.
No shutdown notice. No email. No social media post. Just silence. That’s the hallmark of an exit scam-or worse, a slow fade into irrelevance. There was no bankruptcy filing. No press release. No announcement. The team just stopped showing up.
Today, the site is a static archive. The homepage still says “Your Trusted Crypto Exchange” in Vietnamese. The login button still works. But when you click it, it just spins. Forever. No error message. No “We’re offline” notice. Just nothing.
Who Got Hurt?
Thousands of Vietnamese traders lost access to their funds. Some had small amounts-$500, $1,000. Others had life savings. One user reported losing over 50 million VND ($2,150) after the withdrawal freeze. No one was ever reimbursed. No legal recourse existed. Bvnex was registered as a private company in Vietnam with no regulatory oversight. There was no FDIC, no SIPC, no government agency to call.
Even now, in December 2025, Reddit threads still pop up asking, “Is Bvnex coming back?” The answer is no. Not because it’s “under maintenance.” Not because it’s “updating systems.” It’s gone. Permanently.
What You Should Learn From Bvnex
Bvnex isn’t just a cautionary tale. It’s a lesson in how not to pick a crypto exchange.
- Never use an exchange that doesn’t publish proof of reserves. If they won’t show you their wallet balances, they can’t prove they own your crypto.
- Avoid exchanges that only serve one country. Localized exchanges are convenient, but they’re also fragile. When regulations change, they collapse. Global exchanges have more resilience.
- Watch for sudden fee or limit changes. If your withdrawal limit drops overnight without warning, get out. Fast.
- Check volume trends. If a platform’s trading volume drops 90% in six months, it’s dying. Don’t wait for the website to go dark.
- Don’t trust app reviews alone. Many Bvnex users praised the app’s simplicity-until they couldn’t withdraw.
Today, if you’re in Vietnam and want to trade crypto, use Binance Vietnam, Huobi Vietnam, or OKX Vietnam-all of which partnered with local payment processors and follow global transparency standards. They’re not perfect, but they’re alive. And they’ve proven they can survive regulatory shifts.
Final Verdict: Bvnex Is Dead
Bvnex started with a good idea: make crypto easy for Vietnamese users. But it failed because it prioritized growth over trust. It hid its volume. It ignored user complaints. It didn’t prepare for regulation. And when the pressure came, it vanished.
If you’re considering any crypto exchange today-no matter how small or local-ask yourself this: If this platform disappeared tomorrow, could you prove you owned your crypto? If the answer is no, you’re already at risk.
Bvnex is gone. Don’t let your money follow it.
Is Bvnex still operational in 2025?
No, Bvnex is completely defunct as of early 2023. The website still exists as a static page, but all trading, deposits, and withdrawals have been offline for over two years. No customer support, no activity, and no official shutdown notice was ever issued.
Can I withdraw my funds from Bvnex now?
No, you cannot. Withdrawal functions were disabled in 2022, and the platform has had zero operational capacity since early 2023. Thousands of users lost access to their funds, and there is no known recovery process or legal avenue to reclaim them.
Why did Bvnex shut down?
Bvnex shut down due to a combination of factors: tightening Vietnamese crypto regulations in late 2021, a sudden drop in user trust after withdrawal limits were cut, lack of transparency (no proof of reserves), and suspected volume inflation. Without liquidity or regulatory compliance, it collapsed quietly.
Was Bvnex a scam?
It wasn’t an outright scam from day one-it offered real trading services. But its actions after 2021-hiding volume, cutting withdrawals without notice, ignoring support, and vanishing without warning-match the pattern of an exit scam. The lack of transparency and sudden disappearance make it functionally equivalent to one.
What should I use instead of Bvnex in Vietnam?
Use Binance Vietnam, Huobi Vietnam, or OKX Vietnam. All three offer direct VND deposits, have global backing, publish regular transparency reports, and comply with local regulations. They’ve proven they can survive market shifts and regulatory changes-unlike Bvnex.
Did anyone get their money back from Bvnex?
No. There are no verified cases of users recovering funds after Bvnex went offline. The company never filed for bankruptcy, and there was no regulatory body overseeing it. Once the platform stopped working, all user funds became inaccessible.