Vietnamese companies are racing to launch the country’s first licensed cryptocurrency exchanges as Hanoi moves to restrict citizens from trading on overseas platforms, one of the world’s most active crypto markets.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has accused North Korea of being behind the largest cryptocurrency heist in history, which saw the theft of $1.5 billion in digital assets last week.

Cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ether dropped to multi-month lows on Tuesday, caught up in a general cross-market sell-off, and as traders continued to process last week's hack of $1.5 billion worth of ether from cryptoexchange Bybit.