Vietnam plans to recognize digital assets and virtual assets as valid loan collaterals for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), under a draft amendment to the law on support for SMEs.

The draft law, spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance, can permit credit institutions to develop lending products for SMEs based on a diversified range of collateral forms. They include movable assets, future-formed assets, property rights, intellectual property rights, intangible assets, digital assets, virtual assets, and other legally-recognized assets.

This is an expansion from the existing 2017 edition of the law, the Ministry of Finance highlighted. The draft change is slated for submission to the National Assembly, the country’s highest legislative body, for approval in October 2026.

The draft terms also revises that SMEs are businesses with annual income of no more than VND400 billion ($15.2 million) and the workforce of no more than 300 people.

SMEs account for over 98 percent of all registered enterprises in the country, but they hold only around 19-20 percent of total outstanding credit in the economy, the finance ministry stressed. Vietnam currently has approximately 930,000 registered enterprises, the vast majority of which qualify as SMEs. The government has set a target of reaching two million active businesses by 2030, with SME development as a key goal.

According to the United States-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the value of cryptocurrency transactions in Vietnam reached $220-230 billion from July 2024 to June 2025, averaging more than $600 million per day. This figure places Vietnam among the three largest cryptocurrency markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

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