The bill confirms that certain digital assets – such as crypto tokens – can attract property rights even if they do not fit into the 2 traditional categories of personal property in English and Welsh law (please see details in the policy context section below).
In doing so, the bill is responding to technological developments so that people and businesses who use these assets have appropriate legal protections. This will bring practical benefits for those individuals and businesses (detailed below).
This bill deliberately does not state what digital assets fall within a “third category” of personal property rights or how the law will treat them. Instead, these details will be developed by the courts, who can deal with issues on a case-by-case basis. This is preferable to setting out firm rules in legislation, which would be less able to respond flexibly to new circumstances and technological developments. Personal property law has always been developed by the courts through our common law rather than in legislation. The bill supports this established approach.
