Digital Gold Rush: New UK law grants NFTs and crypto official property status

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 has just received Royal Assent, which means that digital assets can now be legally treated as someone’s personal property for the first time. This landmark legislation, which has been welcomed by the Law Society, places digital assets on the same legal footing as traditional personal property.

Historically, property was categorised as “things in possession” (tangible) or “things in action” (enforceable through court). The new Act, reflecting recommendations from the Law Commission and the Law Society, introduces a third category of personal property to include digital assets.

This means owners of cryptocurrencies and cryptographic tokens (which prove ownership of digital assets such as videos, music, and digital art) can now officially include these assets as part of their estate, addressing past issues in inheritance, divorce, and probate. In addition, the Act will now enable people to take legal action (such as freezing injunctions) to recover stolen or misappropriated digital assets.

Digital assets can also now be used as collateral for loans or mortgages.

So, how might this impact the terms of your Will, or the administration of your estate after you pass away?

Digital assets include cryptocurrency, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens – essentially a unique/verifiable digital certificate of ownership), domain names, and even valuable digital files, which now form part of a person’s taxable estate. This means they can be formally gifted, included in the residue of an estate, and taken into account for Inheritance Tax purposes, just like physical property.

Despite this, digital assets are still generally not included in the traditional definition of “personal chattels” (tangible movable property). Therefore, if you want to leave a specific crypto holding or a high-value NFT to a particular person, your Will must contain clear, specific clauses detailing that gift. Without specific instructions, these assets would typically fall into the estate’s general residue.

The Act strengthens your executor’s ability to manage digital assets, giving them a clearer legal basis to access, manage, transfer, or delete them.

Practical Steps for testators and executors

While the legal status has now been made much clearer, the practical management of these assets remains complex and, as such, the following steps are generally recommended:

• Create a comprehensive, up-to-date list of all of your digital assets (type of asset, where it is held, etc.). However, you should never include passwords, private keys, or seed phrases in the Will itself, as a Will becomes a public document after probate. Instead, store this sensitive access information separately and securely (e.g., in encrypted storage, a password manager with legacy features, or ask your Solicitor/Bank to place a securely sealed document with your stored Will).
• Provide clear, detailed instructions to your executors, which you can do by adding a separate, confidential ‘Letter of Wishes’, explaining where the access information is located, and what should be done with each asset (transfer, sell, delete, or memorialise). However, this is not a legally binding document.
• Consider appointing a technically savvy individual, or someone in a law firm with experience in digital assets, as your executor, ensuring they can manage cryptocurrency wallets and other complex platforms.