ABSTRACT
In previous work I have sought to address the question of whether Crypto is property in law, and have given an emphatic no (see R Stevens ‘Crypto is Not Property’ (2023) 139 Law Quarterly Review 615). Here I seek to answer three different questions.
Should Crypto be Property?
Could Crypto be Property?
Will Crypto be Property?
The first question is one of justice not law, and the answer is ‘no’.
The second question is easy, ‘yes of course’. Unfortunately, the English Law Commission considered that the answer was possibly no, and so we now have the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill on the brink of enactment to remove a perceived barrier. The prospective Act is very unfortunate.
The third question is by far the most difficult. The correct position is that, in principle, those who choose to hold crypto should be subject to all the disdvantages of characterising it as ‘property’ but none of the advantages. Whether the courts will abuse their power by adding to the closed list of property rights is worryingly unclear.
Stevens, Robert, Should Crypto Be Property? (September 27, 2025).
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