The Property (Digital Assets, etc) Act 2025 has received Royal Assent, creating a new category of property under English law. Digital assets such as cryptocurrency did not fit neatly into existing laws, resulting in the courts creating a new category, which is now recognized in the legislation. If an asset is not recognized as property, it becomes tricky to recover the asset if it’s stolen or enforce ownership rights. However, based on previous work from the Law Commission, not all digital assets will fall into this new category.
Previously property was classified into two categories. The first relates to physical assets, such as a house or a car, and is referred to as property in possession. The second, rights in action, includes contractual rights and copyright. Bitcoin does not fit neatly into these two categories. However, while the new legislation creates the third property category, it leaves it up to the courts to fill in the details, as highlighted by the Act’s brevity. The core provision states:
A thing (including a thing that is digital or electronic in nature) is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because it is neither –
(a) a thing in possession, nor
(b) a thing in action.
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