Over three-quarters of Vietnamese crypto holders make investment decisions through friends’ referrals.

That’s according to an Aug. 30 report by Vietnamese venture capital firms Kyros Ventures and Coin68, alongside Animoca Brands. In the 3,300-participant survey, 75.5% of participants admitted being “influenced by recommendations or referrals” regarding crypto investing. The amount is 2.5 times higher than reported in the United States.

Self-study, community groups and media news were the biggest sources of information for Vietnamese crypto investors, with nearly one in two electing such methods.

The "Vietnam Cryptocurrency Market Report" for the first half of 2023 also found that 70% of respondents believed the bear market was already over or nearing its end. Meanwhile, 75% of respondents desired more regulatory intervention in the crypto sector.

As per Chainalysis, Vietnam is currently the top country in the world in terms of crypto adoption and second in decentralized finance (DeFi), with over 19% of adults owning digital assets. Despite this, only nine Vietnamese educational institutions provide blockchain courses, and only eight blockchain infrastructure projects are present within the Southeast Asian country. 

Nearly 90% of survey respondents engaged in DeFi activities, compared with 70.2% for GameFi, 73.7% for nonfungible tokens, 91% for centralized finance and 54.9% for SocialFi. Participants remain equally distributed between their preference for centralized exchanges compared to decentralized exchanges. Researchers summarized:

“The local tech development and trends also change rapidly in line with the global climate. Indeed, you might recognize there were over a hundred GameFi projects in Vietnam before, and now it is time for the 'Web3 builder’ wave, especially since GM Vietnam [Vietnam Blockchain Week] 2023."