The UK Formally Recognises Crypto as Personal Property Under New Law

Jan 15, 2026

1 min read

The UK Formally Recognises Crypto as Personal Property Under New Law — Unsplash - Aswin Mahesh

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill has received royal assent, formally establishing cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as personal property under UK law. Lord Speaker John McFall announced the passage in the House of Lords, with King Charles granting approval.

English law traditionally classified personal property into two categories — things in possession (tangible items) and things in action (enforceable rights) — but crypto assets did not fit neatly into either. The new law codifies a 2024 recommendation by the Law Commission of England and Wales, confirming that a thing that is digital or electronic in nature cannot be excluded from personal property rights simply because it falls outside the traditional categories. Trade body CryptoUK noted that while UK courts had previously treated digital assets as property through case-by-case judgments, Parliament has now written that principle directly into statute. Freddie New, policy chief at Bitcoin Policy UK, called the law a massive step forward for Bitcoin and digital assets in the United Kingdom. According to the UK's financial regulator, approximately 12% of UK adults now hold cryptocurrency, up from 10% in previous findings. The government also outlined plans in April for a broader crypto regulatory regime that would place crypto businesses under rules similar to those applied to traditional financial companies.

As a practical consequence, digital assets can now be clearly owned, recovered in cases of theft or fraud, and included in insolvency and estate processes — providing crypto users, in CryptoUK's assessment, the same confidence and certainty they expect with other forms of property.

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