Insight
The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, explained for estates
Yes, in England and Wales. Section 1 of the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 provides that a thing is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because it is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action. The Act received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025 and came into force that day. It extends to England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It settles ownership; it says nothing about access.
“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.” Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 (c. 29), s.1 - legislation.gov.uk. Royal Assent 2 December 2025; in force on the day passed (s.2(2)); extends to England and Wales and Northern Ireland (s.2(1)).
What problem was it solving?
English property law had, for centuries, recognised two categories of personal property: things in possession - physical objects you can hold - and things in action, being rights enforceable by legal proceedings, such as a debt or a share. A crypto-token fits neither. It is not tangible, and it is not a claim against anyone: there is no issuer to sue.
That created a real risk that tokens were not property at all, and therefore could not be owned, held on trust, stolen in the legal sense, or - most relevantly here - passed under a will. Courts had begun working around the problem, but a first-instance workaround is a fragile foundation for a family's estate. The Law Commission recommended legislation, and the Act is the result.
What section 1 actually does
Read it again and note what it does not say. It does not say crypto-tokens are property. It removes an objection. The drafting is negative and deliberately so: it clears an obstacle and leaves the courts to decide, asset by asset, what falls inside the new category.
| Question | Answer as at September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Is it in force? | Yes. Section 2(2): the Act came into force on the day it was passed - 2 December 2025. |
| Where does it apply? | Section 2(1): England and Wales, and Northern Ireland. Not Scotland. |
| Does it define digital assets? | No. There is no list, no test and no register. That is intentional. |
| Does it decide who owns a token? | No. It establishes that ownership is possible. Whose it is remains a matter of general law and evidence. |
| Does it deal with collateral or security? | No. Collateral arrangements for crypto-tokens remain under Law Commission consideration. |
| Does it help an executor get access? | No, and it never could. A statute cannot reconstruct a private key. |
What it means in an estate
For the will
A gift of digital assets now has a clear subject-matter. That makes it worth drafting specifically: a clause covering assets not yet acquired, a substitutional gift, and consideration of whether an outright gift or a trust is appropriate given the beneficiary's ability to hold the asset safely.
For the executor
Personal representatives have a duty to collect the deceased's property. If tokens are property, they are within that duty - which cuts both ways. An executor who knows of a holding and does nothing is exposed; an executor who never knew is not, which is precisely why an inventory protects everyone. Administrative powers should be extended expressly to cover engaging specialist custodians and dealing with digital assets, because standard clauses were not written with this in mind.
For inheritance tax
HMRC already treated crypto-assets as property for IHT, so the Act does not change the tax analysis so much as reinforce it. Holdings are valued at the date of death and must be reported. Volatility between death and realisation, and the frequent absence of base-cost records, remain the practical difficulties.
For anything that is not a token
Be careful. An account with a platform is often a personal, non-transferable licence under its terms of service, not an asset. The Act does not convert a contractual licence into property. A photo library may be recoverable through a platform legacy tool; the account itself usually is not inheritable at all.
The one-line summary. The Act closed the ownership gap and left the access gap exactly where it was. If your plan relies on the law to get your family into your wallet, you do not have a plan.
Statutory quotations are taken from legislation.gov.uk and contain public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources: s.1, s.2, Law Commission.
Common questions
When did the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 come into force?
On 2 December 2025, the day it received Royal Assent. Section 2(2) provides that the Act comes into force on the day on which it is passed, so there was no commencement order and no transitional period.
Does the Act apply in Scotland?
No. Section 2(1) extends the Act to England and Wales and Northern Ireland only. Scots property law approaches the question through its own categories, so a Scottish estate needs separate advice.
Does the Act mean my crypto is safe?
It means it can be owned and can pass under your will. It does nothing about access. If the private keys are lost, the estate holds a perfect legal title to an asset that can never be moved.
Find out where your estate breaks
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