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ARTICLE · 15 OCTOBER 2026

Theft Or Conversion? A Tale Of Two Tokens

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Almost 7 years on from the UK Jurisdiction Task Force’s seminal report on the law of property relating to purely digital assets and 3 years on from the Law Commission’s own 2023 report on the subject, you would be forgiven for believing that we had reached the point of certainty with respect to how the English law treats digital assets such as crypto-currencies.

United KingdomTechnology
David Bowman
David Bowman

Almost 7 years on from the UK Jurisdiction Task Force’s seminal report on the law of property relating to purely digital assets and 3 years on from the Law Commission’s own 2023 report on the subject, you would be forgiven for believing that we had reached the point of certainty with respect to how the English law treats digital assets such as crypto-currencies.

However, 2026 got off to a confusing start with two significant decisions of the High Court, one in the criminal jurisdiction and another in the civil. This despite the coming into effect of the Property (Digital Assets etc…) Act 2025 in December of last year.

These cases, very ably summarised below by our London intern Savannah Sottack, show that this jurisdiction is still capable of throwing up surprises.

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