After booming in price in 2017, bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies all tumbled in 2018. By January 1, 2019, the price of one bitcoin had dropped to $3,700, a dramatic fall from the peak of $19,665 per bitcoin seen on December 16, 2018.

With the decrease, investors incurred big losses and sold cryptocurrency mining machines. 

T.H.L, an amateur investor in HCMC, told reporters that he bought 1 BTC in 2018 for $14,000. The BTC price began plummeting and he had to sell bitcoin in October at a loss of $7,000.

Minh, an officer of a BTC trading floor, said in late 2017, when BTC was priced at $20,000, the trading floor was always full of investors and transactions took a long time. 

Meanwhile, it takes investors two seconds to complete a transaction. As the BTC price has dropped dramatically, most investors have left trading floors.

Nguyen, an investor on remitano.com, also said there are few investors these days as many investors have lost all of their money. As there is no sign of BTC price recovery, BTC holders have to sell BTC to stop losses. 

Not only BTC investors but cryptocurrency mining machine holders said their machines remain unsold.

“With the current BTC price, the profit investors expect from bitcoin mining will not be high enough to cover electricity bills,” said N.X. Hieu, a BTC miner in HCMC.

In such a chaotic cryptocurrency market, the biggest sufferers are investors who poured real money into ICOs (initial coin offering) organized by ‘bogus’ companies.

A member of a group of 40 investors who invested in BNC and BEC issued by BNI Group admitted that he has lost 2 billion in these two cryptocurrencies because there has been no transaction in the last six months.

Similarly, iLuck, another group of 400 investors, specializing in investing in cryptocurrencies issued by foreign firms, have lost their money.

In April 2018, thousands of people denounced Modern Tech for swindling investors to appropriate VND15 trillion. At that moment, iFan and Pincoin attracted thousands of investors because of the sky-high promised interest rate of up to 576 percent.

The State Bank of Vietnam has many times affirmed that cryptocurrencies are not legal currencies which are legally accepted in payment, and that the issuance, distribution and use of BTC and similar cryptocurrencies as means of payment are prohibited in Vietnam.

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