Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025: Statutory recognition of a third category of personal property for digital assets in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Published on: 12 February 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

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Article summary

Significance and Impact of the Digital Assets Act 2025

The Digital Assets Act 2025: The wording

The preamble to the Digital Assets Act 2025 explains that the legislation makes provision concerning the kinds of things that are not barred from being the subject of personal property rights. It is a concise statute. Section 1 provides that a “thing” — including one that is digital or electronic in character — is not disqualified from being the object of personal property rights simply because it is neither (a) a thing in possession nor (b) a thing in action.

Put differently, and by virtue of the Act, even where a thing (including one that is digital or electronic in character) does not fit the orthodox property categories — namely, things in possession (items capable of physical possession) or things in action (property claimable or enforceable through court proceedings) — that circumstance does not, in law, stop the thing being recognised as an object of personal property rights. Accordingly, the Digital Assets Act 2025 affirms a third class of personal property, existing alongside the two traditional categories mentioned above. What falls outside the scope of the Digital...

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