OKX Ventures and HashKey Back Vietnam's CAEX in Licensing Bid
OKX Ventures and HashKey have agreed to invest in CAEX — officially Vietnam Prosperity Cryptocurrency Asset Exchange Joint Stock Company — with the combined capital injection scheduled for April, according to the South China Morning Post and CoinTelegraph.
The immediate objective is to push CAEX past Vietnam's minimum charter capital threshold, reported at the equivalent of $380 million by CoinDesk, which is a prerequisite for joining the country's regulated pilot scheme for digital asset trading.
CAEX carries a notable institutional pedigree: CoinTelegraph reports the exchange is backed by VPBank, one of Vietnam's largest listed commercial banks. That lineage, combined with fresh capital from two established crypto-sector names, positions CAEX as the most credible candidate to anchor a domestic regulated market.
The pilot programme is part of a broader Vietnamese government effort to license local platforms and curtail the volume of retail and institutional trading routed through offshore exchanges. By setting a high capital bar, regulators appear to be deliberately limiting participation to well-resourced, accountable entities rather than allowing a fragmented field of smaller operators.
HashKey, which is listed in Hong Kong and operates a licensed retail crypto exchange there, brings regional regulatory experience that may prove useful as CAEX navigates Vietnam's approval process. OKX Ventures is the investment arm of the OKX exchange, one of the world's largest crypto trading venues by volume.
Neither the precise equity stakes acquired nor the individual amounts contributed by each investor were disclosed in the available sources.
