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Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025

A short Act of the UK Parliament that received Royal Assent in December 2025 and formally recognises that certain digital assets, including crypto-tokens, non-fungible tokens, and other digital things, can be treated as personal property in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Act creates what is often described as a "third category" of personal property, alongside the two traditional categories (physical things in possession; choses in action such as debts and contractual rights), into which digital things did not fit cleanly under earlier law. [source: legislation-gov-uk/property-digital-assets-act-2025-2026-05-02.html]

Background: the Law Commission spent several years investigating the legal status of digital assets. Courts had begun treating cryptocurrency and similar assets as property in individual decisions (most prominently AA v Persons Unknown [2019] in the High Court of England and Wales) but there was no statutory confirmation. The 2025 Act ratifies and generalises the case-law position rather than inventing new rules. The practical effect for most disputes is to remove an argument the losing side could otherwise have run.

For executors, the consequences are pragmatic rather than dramatic:

  • Qualifying digital assets are part of the estate and can be included in the application for a grant of probate or letters of administration.
  • A request to a platform can be framed as a property claim by the legal personal representative rather than a request for "account access," giving a stronger legal footing for negotiation with provider legal teams (particularly relevant to US-headquartered platforms).
  • Cryptocurrency held on a custodial exchange is treated as a debt owed by the exchange to the estate (similar to a bank balance), strengthening the executor's claim against the exchange.

Limits of the Act:

  • It does not override the terms of service of any individual platform; Apple, Google, and Meta retain their own bereavement policies.
  • It does not require a provider to disclose passwords or login credentials.
  • It does not recover a lost private key or seed phrase for a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, without the key, the asset remains unrecoverable regardless of the legal characterisation.
  • It does not extend to Scotland. The Scottish Government is consulting separately on equivalent provisions; as of 2026 Scottish executors rely on common law and the existing confirmation process.

The Act is short, its substantive provision is a single recognition clause, but its effect is to consolidate around a decade of judicial development into a clear statutory base. [source: legislation-gov-uk/property-digital-assets-act-2025-2026-05-02.html]

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Last verified: 2 May 2026 against legislation.gov.uk Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025.

AfterLoss

Our digital legacy guide explains how the 2025 Property (Digital Assets etc) Act reframes crypto, NFTs and other digital property in succession law. Information and Documents includes a Digital Accounts surface that records what online services and digital assets exist, so the executor can apply the Act against a clear inventory.