# Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 — what it means for UK wills and estates

> Regulation · 26 May 2026

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## Summary

The narrowly drafted Act, which received Royal Assent in December 2025, confirms that cryptoassets, NFTs and other digital property can be the object of personal-property rights in England and Wales — putting the Law Commission's 'third category' on a statutory footing.

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025. It is short and deliberately narrow: it confirms that a thing is not prevented from being the object of personal-property rights in England and Wales merely because it is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action. That puts the line of cases starting with AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 — and the Law Commission's 2023 Digital Assets report (Law Com No 412) — on a statutory footing.

What the Act does not do is equally important. It does not define what a 'digital asset' is, it does not set out how crypto or NFTs pass on death, and it does not change the tax treatment of digital property. It removes a doctrinal obstacle and leaves the rest to the existing law of property, succession and tax.

The practical implication for households is straightforward: a will can validly leave cryptoassets, NFTs, in-game items or tokenised carbon credits — but unless the executor can actually access the assets, the gift can be functionally lost. Self-custodied crypto cannot be recovered without the seed phrase. Custodial accounts at exchanges follow each platform's bereavement process. Including a clear digital-asset inventory and access plan alongside the will is now the higher-leverage step.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate private law. Both recognise digital property through their own routes; the statutory wording of the 2025 Act applies to England and Wales only.

For the underlying inclusion in the estate — and the £325,000 nil-rate band, £175,000 residence band and 36% reduced charity rate — Inheritance Tax rules are unchanged. The master guide on digital assets in your will sets out drafting, access and executor considerations; the new digital asset IHT calculator estimates the headline tax exposure for an estate that includes crypto and NFTs.

## Related topics

- [/family-life/](https://moneyguide.org.uk/family-life/)

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Independent UK money guidance from [Money Guide](https://moneyguide.org.uk). Information only — not regulated financial advice.