On December 2, 2025, King Charles III of the United Kingdom officially approved the Property (Digital Assets, etc.) Act 2025, which took immediate effect in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This move created an unprecedented "third category" of personal property in UK property law, specifically established for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as NFTs.
This means that approximately 7 million cryptocurrency holders in the UK (about 12% of the adult population) can now clearly own, inherit, and recover stolen digital assets.
01 Legal milestone: a digital innovation in a century-old property law system
Since a court case in 1885, the framework of UK property law has always divided personal property into two main categories: tangible chattels (such as cars and houses) and choses in action (such as contractual rights and debts).
With the emergence of digital assets, this traditional dichotomy has shown obvious