The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 is now in force
On 2 December 2025, the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 became law. This is the culmination of an extensive law reform project, involving multiple Law Commission consultations and reports, lobbying by industry, widespread – if not universal – encouragement from academia and consistent support from governments of different political persuasions. The result is a significant step towards cementing the UK as the leading legal jurisdiction to underpin the digital asset economy.
The Act itself contains only a single technical change to the law: it provides that digital assets are not prevented from being treated as property merely because they do not fall within the two existing legal categories of property (‘choses in possession’ and ‘choses in action’). The importance of this change is that it allows the courts to create rules that suit the unique characteristics of digital assets even within the framework of the normally incremental development of the English common law. In fact, recent cases have seen the courts of England and Wales take exactly this approach, invariably citing the Act (or Bill, as it then was) as justification, even before it was enacted. This shows how crucial the Act is for the progress of English digital assets law.
The courts will continue to refine proprietary remedies for digital assets, where they have been pragmatic and effective. In areas such as fungibility, where the common law has historically struggled for coherence in the rules for the existing two categories of property, the courts have the opportunity to create principled rules for digital assets. Rules for taking security over digital assets will also be in the spotlight.
Attention may now shift to cross-border rules for digital assets. Here, although the Law Commission has carried out a consultation, there is less agreement as to the right way to proceed. Meanwhile, though, as far as domestic English law is concerned, the Act has steered the courts in the right direction.