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The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 has received Royal Assent 

Published:
image of digital currency

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, based closely on Law Commission recommendations concerning the law of personal property and its application to digital assets, has completed its passage through Parliament and received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025. Further details and a full version of the Act are available on the Parliamentary Bills website.

Property and property rights are vital to modern social, economic and legal systems and the law provides important protections for property owners. In a report published in June 2023, the Commission concluded that certain digital assets, including crypto-tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), can be regarded as “property” and should be recognised and protected as such.  

However, the Commission said that such digital assets are fundamentally different both from physical assets, and from rights-based assets like debts and financial securities. This means that they do not fit easily within the categories of personal property traditionally recognised by the law in this jurisdiction: things in possession and things in action. The Commission recommended that legislation should confirm the existence of a “third” category of personal property, into which crypto-tokens and potentially other assets could fall. The Commission published a draft bill to implement this recommendation in July 2024. 

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, based closely on that draft bill, makes clear that a thing is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because it does not fit into either of the existing categories. This reflects the trajectory of recent case law, but removes the lingering uncertainty that remains in the absence of a definitive statement from an upper court. 

The Act leaves it to the courts to develop this “third category” of personal property by delineating its boundaries and the rights that attach to “third category” things. 

The passage of the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 keeps the law of England and Wales at the forefront of legal development. This new Act, which is based on our recommendations, will enable the courts to develop the law in ways that accommodate the unique features of these emerging assets, while ensuring that they can be protected as objects of property rights. This will enhance the rights of users of crypto-tokens and improve legal certainty for individuals and businesses. 
Professor Solène Rowan, Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law

The Commission’s recommendations on other matters including collateral arrangements for crypto-tokens are still under consideration. 

Further information about the digital assets project, including recommendations, can be found on the digital assets project page.