Unmasking the Founders of SCEX: How Banking Veterans and Fintech Giants Joined Forces to Build Vietnam’s Compliant Crypto Exchange
As the Vietnamese government prepares to inaugurate its official virtual asset sandbox under Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP, Sacom Crypto Asset Exchange (SCEX)—formerly known as Lộc Phát (LPEX)—has surfaced as a leading candidate for a pilot license. As market interest intensifies, one question has dominated discussions among investors and analysts: Who is behind the founding of SCEX?
Unlike traditional digital asset platforms built by independent tech entrepreneurs or solo founders, SCEX was not created by a single individual. Corporate registration and filing records reveal an institutional founding consortium composed of former senior executives from Vietnam’s commercial banking sector, fintech specialists, and domestic institutional investors.
A Leadership Team Steeped in Commercial Banking
SCEX underwent a capital restructuring and corporate rebranding from its predecessor, LPEX, to meet the strict legal guidelines established by the Ministry of Finance. Its executive management and core founding team reflect a strong focus on institutional compliance and traditional risk governance:
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Banking & Compliance Veterans: The core initiative was spearheaded by former senior executives and risk control officers from major Vietnamese commercial banks, notably Sacombank and LPBank. Their collective background brings over a decade of operational expertise in retail banking settlements, anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks, and regulatory liaison.
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Institutional Technology Operations: Execution and system engineering are managed by a professional team with international investment banking and Web3 infrastructure experience. They have implemented platform architecture compliant with Level 4 information safety standards.
Institutional Consortium Structure
Vietnam’s sandbox criteria require pilot exchanges to maintain at least 65% institutional ownership. To satisfy this benchmark, SCEX adopted a joint institutional ownership model:
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Sacombank and LPBank Ecosystem Alignment: Serving as key infrastructure partners, these commercial banking ecosystems provide SCEX with round-the-clock 24/7 direct Vietnamese Dong (VND) clearing channels, alongside bank-grade asset segregation protocols.
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Domestic Fintech Backing: Several leading Vietnamese software and fintech enterprises participated as founding shareholders, enabling direct system integration with the Ministry of Public Security’s C06 national database for chip-based ID (CCCD) eKYC verification.
Strategic Direction: Moving Beyond Unregulated Growth
The strategic vision of SCEX’s founding group centers on building a regulated, bank-connected gateway rather than pursuing high-leverage offshore derivatives:
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Eliminating P2P Account Freezes: Direct integration with commercial bank clearing houses provides seamless fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, resolving the risks of bank account freezes common in peer-to-peer trading.
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Automated Tax Compliance: SCEX’s trading engine features embedded tax calculation tools designed to automatically process the 0.1% transaction tax on individual digital asset transfers mandated by national tax authorities.
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Real-World Asset (RWA) Expansion: Leveraging its founders’ traditional banking relationships, SCEX plans to explore tokenization pilots for government bonds, corporate debt, and real estate within the sandbox environment.
Market Perspective
Industry analysts note that the founding story of SCEX signals a broader transformation within Southeast Asia’s crypto landscape: a transition away from solo-founder startups toward institutional, bank-backed joint ventures. This deep alignment between commercial banking veterans and fintech capital serves as a critical advantage for SCEX as it competes for Vietnam’s first wave of official digital asset exchange licenses.（Vietnam Crypto Exchange）