Crypto31 May, 20262 min read
Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance Proposes Letting SMEs Use Digital Assets as Loan Collateral
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SMEs may pledge digital assets, virtual assets, and intellectual property as loan collateral. Draft revision of the Law on Support for SMEs broadens collateral beyond real estate.
Vietnam opens crypto collateral
Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has proposed amendments that would allow small and medium enterprises to use digital assets, virtual assets, and intellectual property as collateral when borrowing from banks. The proposal sits inside a draft revision of the Law on Support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and would allow SMEs to use digital assets, virtual assets, intellectual property rights, future-formed assets, property rights and other intangible holdings as collateral for loans.
“If approved, the new rules would take effect on July 1, 2027.”
The draft also pushes credit institutions to broaden SME lending beyond real estate-backed collateral and consider business plans, credit ratings, market expansion strategies and cash flows. Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance estimates that SMEs and household businesses make up more than 98 percent of businesses in the country, yet they account for only around 19 to 20 percent of total outstanding credit, with outstanding SME loans reaching nearly VND3.8 quadrillion, or about $144.2 billion, by the end of April.
Consultation timeline and rules
The draft was released for public feedback between May 25 and May 29, 2026, with plans to submit it to the National Assembly in October 2026. If approved, the new rules would take effect on July 1, 2027, giving regulators a defined window to translate the collateral concept into bank practice.
The proposal expands acceptable collateral to include digital assets, virtual assets, intellectual property rights, future-formed assets, and other intangible assets, while encouraging banks to adopt lending approaches based on cash flows, business plans, and credit ratings rather than insisting on fixed-asset security. In the background, the State Bank of Vietnam prohibited the use of virtual assets for payments in 2017, and from 2025 to 2026 the government initiated a five-year pilot program to oversee digital asset exchanges and the licensing of service providers.
Crypto adoption and next steps
Vietnam’s push to integrate digital assets into lending is framed alongside its broader crypto footprint, with Chainalysis ranking Vietnam fourth in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index behind India, the United States and Pakistan. Separate Chainalysis data cited by local media put Vietnam-linked crypto transaction value at more than $220 billion from July 2024 to June 2025, underscoring the scale of activity the collateral proposal would be designed to serve.
The draft’s implementation challenge is valuation and risk management, because the proposal does not prescribe exactly how banks should value digital assets or manage liquidation risk before the target launch in mid-2027. In parallel, Vietnam could see its first regulated crypto market activity as early as the third quarter of 2026, according to remarks by Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi at the Digital Trust in Finance 2026 forum.