Thursday, August 8, 2024 – The Law Commission of England and Wales on August 2 proposed a new legal classification for crypto assets to be recognized as a unique form of personal property.
The current legal classification related to personal property has been divided into two categories: tangible and intangible.
Since this classification fails to address the complexity of digital assets, which display both tangible and intangible characteristics, the Law Commission proposed to create a third category illustrating hybrid features in response to the ambiguities.
It is believed that the flexibility of common law is instrumental in gaining legal recognition and protection for digital assets.
The commission has issued a draft bill, passing it on to the court for further development and clarifying the necessity of the third category securing the legal status of the rest of personal property.
The proposal and draft bill are now being assessed by the government.
The novel step of the Law Commission would tap into an inclusive legal framework, ensuring the growth and stability of digital assets in England and Wales.
Recently, the Bank of England and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) began a consultation on draft guidance for the Digital Securities Sandbox, intending to provide testing of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the trading and settlement of digital securities.
