Build, Rent or Hire a Blockchain Team in Vietnam (2026)

There are three ways to get a blockchain development team in Vietnam: build it by setting up your own Vietnamese company and employing engineers directly, rent it by contracting a Vietnamese software firm to deliver the work, or hire individuals without an entity through an Employer of Record (EOR). None is best in general. The right choice depends on how long you plan to stay, how much of the product’s IP and know-how must sit inside your own company, and how fast you need the first engineer working.

This guide compares the three routes on setup time, legal employer, IP ownership, control and exit, using the rules in force in 2026. Vietnam changed the entity route significantly this year: the Law on Investment 2025 now lets foreign investors incorporate first and obtain the investment certificate afterwards.

What is the difference between building, renting and hiring a team?

Answer first: the difference is who employs the engineers. When you build, your Vietnamese company is the employer. When you rent, the vendor employs them and sells you a service. When you hire through an EOR, a local provider is the legal employer while you direct the day-to-day work.

	Build (own entity)	Rent (development vendor)	Hire (EOR)
Legal employer	Your Vietnamese company	The vendor	The EOR provider
What you buy	Employees	A delivered service or dedicated team	Employment administration for people you select
Who picks each engineer	You	Mostly the vendor, with your approval	You
Default owner of code written	Your company (IP Law, Art. 39(1))	Depends on the contract (IP Law, Art. 39)	Must be assigned by contract through the EOR
Time to first engineer	Longest: company formation, then hiring	Shortest if the vendor has bench capacity	Short: recruiting time plus onboarding
Main legal watch-point	Investment certificate within 12 months of incorporation	Contract must stay a service, not labour subleasing	Permanent establishment and contractor misclassification
Easiest exit	Hardest (entity dissolution)	Easiest (contract term)	Moderate (employment termination rules apply)

Sources: Law on Intellectual Property No. 50/2005/QH11, Art. 39 (English text); Law on Investment No. 143/2025/QH15 via Acclime (2026); Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14, Art. 13 and 53.

Whichever route you pick, the team itself has to be shaped the same way. In BlockchainWork’s analysis of 1,029 blockchain job listings from companies operating in Vietnam in 2025, 53.4% of openings were non-technical and 46.6% technical; the most recruited technical roles were Backend Developer (18.75%), Full-stack Developer (17.08%) and Blockchain Developer (11.67%) (BlockchainWork, Vietnam Blockchain Job Market Report 2025, 2026). A working blockchain team in Vietnam is mostly backend engineering plus product, marketing and community roles, and all three routes need to cover that mix.

The 2026 data pushes the same way. On BlockchainWork’s job board in Q3 2026, engineering fell from 47.7% to 41.2% of listings while marketing, sales and finance together rose from 22.2% to 33.7%, and listings mentioning AI, machine learning or data engineering doubled from 4.6% to 7.5%. Listings asking for more than five years’ experience fell from 10.5% to 4.8% (BlockchainWork, Vietnam Blockchain Talent Report 2026, 2026). In practice, senior blockchain engineers are the scarcest hire on every route, which is one more reason to decide early who will own core protocol knowledge.

How long does it take to build your own entity in Vietnam in 2026?

Answer first: under the traditional IRC-first sequence, plan for roughly 30 to 45 business days to incorporate a 100% foreign-owned software company, and longer if documents need legalisation abroad. Since 1 March 2026, the Law on Investment 2025 lets you register the company first and complete the investment certificate within 12 months, but you may not start the investment project until that certificate is issued.

Software development and IT consultancy are open to 100% foreign ownership, with no local partner required and no legal minimum capital for the sector. DEDICA Law recommends USD 30,000-50,000 of charter capital “for credibility and operational ease” and gives typical processing times of 10-15 business days for the Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) and 5-7 business days for the Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC) (DEDICA Law, 2026).

The 2026 change is the order of those two steps:

Rule for foreign investors	Before 1 March 2026	From 1 March 2026
Legal basis	Law on Investment 2020	Law on Investment No. 143/2025/QH15, guided by Decree 96/2026/ND-CP
Order of filings	IRC first, then ERC	ERC first is permitted, IRC afterwards
Deadline for the IRC	Not applicable	Within 12 months of incorporation
Starting the project	After both certificates	Only after the IRC is issued
Charter capital contribution	90 days from ERC	90 days from ERC (unchanged, now runs in parallel with the IRC deadline)

Source: Acclime Vietnam, Vietnam Introduces ERC-first Incorporation for Foreign Investors (2026).

Once the entity exists, it carries its own tax and payroll obligations. Under Law No. 67/2025/QH15 on Corporate Income Tax, effective 1 October 2025, the standard rate is 20%, with 15% for enterprises with annual revenue up to VND 3 billion and 17% for revenue of VND 3-50 billion; the law also adds cybersecurity and key digital technology products and services to the incentivised sectors, with details left to government guidance (EY, 2025). As employer, the entity contributes 21.5% of salary to social, health and unemployment insurance for Vietnamese staff, while employees contribute 10.5% (EY Vietnam, 2025).

Building makes the most sense when the team is the product: when your protocol, smart contract logic or key management is core IP, when you expect to employ people for years, and when you want your own employer brand in the local market. It is also the route where retention is entirely your responsibility. In BlockchainWork’s 2025 candidate survey, about 48% of blockchain professionals in Vietnam had spent less than one year at each company, and only 13% had stayed with one employer for more than three years (BlockchainWork, 2026). An entity gives you full control over the levers that address that, from compensation design to career paths.

When does renting a Vietnamese development team make sense?

Answer first: renting works best when you need output quickly, the scope can be defined as deliverables, and you do not need to own the employment relationship. Vietnam has a deep vendor base for this: in 2025, more than 2,100 Vietnamese technology companies operated in international markets, earning an estimated USD 15 billion from them.

Those national figures were announced for the 2025 year-end review of the digital technology sector, which reported total sector revenue of about USD 198 billion, up nearly 26%, and around 80,000 digital technology enterprises employing more than 1.9 million people (Thanh Niên, 30 December 2025). FPT, one of the largest exporters, illustrates the scale: its global IT services revenue reached USD 1.33 billion as of November 2025, up 12%, with revenue from Japan up 25% (FPT Software, 2025).

Two legal points decide whether a rental arrangement holds up.

Keep it a service, not labour subleasing. The Labour Code defines labour leasing as employees of a licensed leasing company being placed under the management of another employer. It is capped at 12 months per employee (Art. 53) and limited to 20 occupations listed in Decree 145/2020/ND-CP, and the leasing company needs a licence and a VND 2 billion deposit (Labour Code, Art. 53; Le & Tran Law, 2023). A dedicated-team contract should therefore be written around what the vendor delivers and how the vendor manages its own staff, rather than around engineers taking instructions from you as if they were your employees.

Write the IP assignment into the contract. Article 39 of the IP Law gives the economic rights in a work to the organisation that assigned the task to its employee, or that contracted the author, “except where otherwise agreed” (Law on Intellectual Property, Art. 39). With a vendor, the engineers are the vendor’s employees, so an explicit clause assigning code, documentation and deployment keys to you is what makes ownership clear. For blockchain work this should also cover who controls deployer wallets, admin keys and upgrade rights on deployed contracts.

Renting fits a first MVP, a defined integration, or specialist work such as an external smart contract audit. For a comparison of audit tooling you can ask a vendor about, see 10 Smart Contract Audit Tools Compared (2026).

How does hiring through an Employer of Record work in Vietnam?

Answer first: the EOR signs the Vietnamese labour contract, runs payroll, withholds tax and pays social insurance, while you choose the people and direct their work. It lets you employ named engineers within weeks without an entity, but it does not remove every risk of operating in Vietnam without one.

The EOR route solves a specific problem: foreign companies often want to “just contract” Vietnamese engineers directly, and the Labour Code does not allow that label to decide the outcome. Under Article 13, any agreement covering a paid job, a wage and one party’s management and supervision is treated as a labour contract, whatever the parties call it (Labour Code, Art. 13). An EOR puts that relationship on a compliant footing, with statutory contributions of 21.5% (employer) and 10.5% (employee) for Vietnamese staff (EY Vietnam, 2025).

Three points to settle before signing with any EOR:

Question	Why it matters	Reference
Does the contract chain assign IP to you?	Article 39 gives rights to the employing organisation unless agreed otherwise, and the EOR is the employer	IP Law, Art. 39(1)
Could your team create a permanent establishment?	A services PE may arise at 183 days or more in any 12-month period, cumulative across projects; a dependent agent who habitually concludes contracts for you may also create one	Acclime, Permanent Establishment in Vietnam (2026)
How will employees move if you later build an entity?	You will need new labour contracts with your own company, so plan the transfer terms from the start	Labour Code, Art. 13-14

On the PE point, Acclime’s guidance is direct: an extended in-country presence may warrant establishing a formal registered entity rather than risking an unintended PE. That is why EOR works best as the first stage of a market entry, typically for a small team of engineers you have selected yourself, rather than as a permanent structure for a large sales-generating operation.

One change applies if the team includes foreign engineers. Decree 393/2026/ND-CP, effective 5 December 2026, restricts leasing and sub-leasing foreign employees through labour dispatch and staffing entities, and Acclime notes that businesses engaging expatriates through an EOR or similar third-party model may need to restructure (Acclime, 2026). For Vietnamese engineers hired through an EOR, this decree on foreign workers is not the deciding rule; for a foreign hire, confirm the structure with your EOR before that date.

Which option fits your blockchain team?

Answer first: choose by stage, not by preference. Rent to validate a product quickly, hire through an EOR to put your own chosen engineers in place without an entity, and build once headcount and a long-term commitment justify the overhead.

Situation	Best-fit route	Why
MVP or proof of concept, fixed scope, under 6 months	Rent	Fastest start, contract-based exit, no employment obligations
External smart contract audit or specialist integration	Rent	Specialist capability you need once, not permanently
First 1-10 engineers you want to select and manage yourself	Hire (EOR)	Your people, no entity, compliant contracts from day one
Team handling core protocol IP, keys or custody logic	Build (or Hire, then Build)	Ownership and security control sit inside your own company
Long-term hub of 15+ people with local leadership	Build	Tax, employer brand and retention levers are all yours

Source: BlockchainWork analysis based on the legal rules cited above (2026).

Location should be decided at the same time. Hanoi accounted for 51.7% of the blockchain job listings BlockchainWork analysed for 2025 and Ho Chi Minh City for 38.6% (BlockchainWork, 2026). The 2026 data shows Hanoi pulling further ahead, with 59.4% of Q3 listings against 34.2% for Ho Chi Minh City (BlockchainWork, 2026). A built entity or a vendor in one of those two cities gives you access to most of the market; an EOR lets you hire in either city without choosing an office first. For salary benchmarks by role when budgeting any of the three routes, see BlockchainWork’s Vietnamese-language guide Lương blockchain Việt Nam 2026 (in Vietnamese).

Many foreign employers combine the routes. A common sequence is to rent for the first release, move the engineers you want to keep into an EOR arrangement, and then transfer them into your own entity once the ERC-first rules make incorporation a smaller first step. Japanese employers, who are expanding in Vietnam faster than in any other ASEAN market, often follow this sequence; we cover their reasons in Why Japanese Firms Hire Vietnamese Engineers (2026 Data). Our pillar guide covers salaries, hiring process and retention for each stage: Hire Blockchain Developers in Vietnam: 2026 Employer Guide.

BlockchainWork is a specialised blockchain recruitment platform in Vietnam with 25,000+ registered candidates, 12+ educational institution MOUs and 350+ hiring companies. Create an employer account at blockchainwork.net/employer-signup to post blockchain and Web3 roles, or contact our team (contact@blockchainwork.net) to discuss which of the three routes fits the team you are building in Vietnam.

Frequently asked questions

1. Can a foreign company own 100% of a software company in Vietnam?

Yes. Software development and IT consultancy are open to 100% foreign ownership without a local partner, and there is no legal minimum capital for the sector (DEDICA Law, 2026). Since 1 March 2026, the Law on Investment 2025 allows you to obtain the Enterprise Registration Certificate first and the Investment Registration Certificate within 12 months.

2. Is it legal to hire Vietnamese developers as contractors from abroad?

The label does not decide it. Under Article 13 of the Labour Code, an agreement with a paid job, a wage and management by one party is treated as a labour contract whatever it is called. Genuine project-based freelance work is possible, but a full-time engineer working under your direction is, in substance, an employee.

3. Who owns the code when a Vietnamese vendor builds it?

Article 39 of the IP Law gives economic rights to the organisation that employs or contracts the author “except where otherwise agreed.” Because the vendor employs the engineers, your service contract should assign code, documentation and control of deployer and admin keys to you explicitly.

4. How long can I use labour leasing for a developer in Vietnam?

Up to 12 months per employee under Article 53 of the Labour Code, and only for the 20 occupations listed in Decree 145/2020/ND-CP, through a licensed leasing company. Most software work is structured as a service contract or through an EOR instead.

5. When should I switch from an EOR to my own entity?

When the team becomes long-term and central to your business. Acclime notes that a services permanent establishment may arise at 183 days or more in any 12-month period and that an extended in-country presence may warrant a registered entity. Headcount, core IP and local revenue are the usual triggers. If the team includes foreign engineers, also review Decree 393/2026/ND-CP, which restricts leasing foreign employees through staffing entities from 5 December 2026 (Acclime, 2026).

Sources

• BlockchainWork, Vietnam Blockchain Talent Report 2026: Q3 Job Market Trends (2026): https://insider.blockchainwork.net/en/vietnam-blockchain-talent-report-2026
• BlockchainWork, Vietnam Blockchain Job Market Report 2025 – Outlook for 2026 (2026): https://insider.blockchainwork.net/en/blockchainwork-releases-vietnam-blockchain-job-market-report-2025-outlook-for-2026
• Acclime Vietnam, Vietnam Introduces ERC-first Incorporation for Foreign Investors (2026)
• Acclime Vietnam, Permanent Establishment in Vietnam (2026)
• DEDICA Law, Guide to Setting Up a 100% Foreign-Owned Software Company in Vietnam (2026)
• EY, Vietnam passes new corporate income tax law (2025)
• EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding the mandatory social security from 1 July 2025 (2025)
• LuatVietnam, Labor Code No. 45/2019/QH14 (English text)
• Law on Intellectual Property No. 50/2005/QH11 (English text)
• Acclime Vietnam, Vietnam’s Decree 393 Restricts the Leasing of Foreign Employees (2026)
• Le & Tran Law, Labor Subleasing – Flexible Human Resources Solution (2023)
• Thanh Niên, Doanh thu toàn ngành công nghệ số ước đạt gần 200 tỉ USD, tăng gần 26% (2025)
• FPT Software, FPT’s 2025 Year in Review (2025)

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