After hitting an all-time high just hours earlier, SJC gold bars plummeted by 3 million VND, forcing major shops to suspend sales and leaving desperate citizens stranded.
CaliToday (18/10/2025): Vietnam’s unprecedented "gold fever" (sốt vàng) turned to ice-cold panic on Saturday afternoon in one of the most volatile trading days in the nation's history.
After a parabolic rise saw prices smash all-time records in the morning, the market executed a brutal "U-turn" (quay xe), crashing by millions of dong in a matter of hours. The whiplash has triggered chaos, freezing the official market, and leaving thousands of baffled investors and everyday citizens in financial limbo.
As of late afternoon, SJC gold bars, the state-regulated brand that dominates the local market, were trading at approximately 149.5 million VND/tael (buy) and 151 million VND/tael (sell). This represents a staggering drop of 2 to 3 million VND from the historic peaks seen just hours earlier.
(For context, a "tael," or "lượng" in Vietnamese, is a traditional unit of weight equivalent to 37.5 grams or approximately 1.2 troy ounces.)
Market Paralyzed: "Sold Out" Signs and Frozen Queues
The most dramatic scenes unfolded on the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Major, well-known gold retailers, who had been overwhelmed by buyers all week, were the first to buckle under the sudden, violent price drop.
Eyewitnesses report that many of the largest gold shops, including branches of Bao Tin Minh Chau and SJC, abruptly posted signs reading "HẾT HÀNG" (Sold Out) or, more commonly, "TẠM NGƯNG GIAO DỊCH" (Temporarily Suspended Trading).
This move has effectively paralyzed the official market. The "Sold Out" signs are seen by many as a defensive measure by retailers to avoid selling physical gold at a loss or, more likely, to protect themselves from the extreme volatility. The massive 1.5 million VND spread (the gap between buy and sell prices) is a clear indicator of the immense risk dealers are unwilling to take.
The suspension left hundreds of people, who had been queueing for hours, stranded.
"I came this morning to sell at the peak, but the line was too long," said one distressed woman, Nguyen Thu Huong, outside a suspended shop in Hanoi. "Now I've come back, and the price has collapsed, but they won't even buy from me. What am I supposed to do?"
Chaos and "Scalpers" Fill the Void
With the official channels frozen, the situation has devolved into chaos. Desperate citizens, some clutching bags of cash and others holding their life savings in gold, remain camped outside the closed shops ("túc trực"), anxiously waiting for trading to resume.
This vacuum has given rise to a new phenomenon: "cò" (opportunistic curbside scalpers).
These unofficial brokers are now circulating in the crowds, offering to buy or sell gold on the spot, preying on the desperation of those trapped by the market freeze. This unregulated "gray market" activity adds a significant layer of risk, with no guarantee of authenticity or fair pricing.
The sudden reversal has caught a nation in the grip of a speculative frenzy. Those who bought at the peak this morning are now facing catastrophic on-paper losses, while those who held off are trapped, unable to buy on the dip. For now, Vietnam's gold market is broken, caught between record-high fever and the ice-cold reality of a sudden, brutal crash.
