The Digital Assets (Scotland) Bill: good news for the innovation economy in Scotland

Following the conclusion of the Scottish Government’s consultation at the beginning of February 2025, the Digital Assets (Scotland) Bill (the “Bill”) was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 30 September 2025. The Bill is designed to deliver on the Scottish Government’s commitment in its programme for Government to “clarify the status of digital assets as property in Scots private law, to provide greater legal certainty for individuals and for businesses including those investing in digital assets, for technology and financial start-ups, as well as for the legal sector”.

Key aspects of the Bill are summarised below.

Summary

• The Bill confirms that digital assets are incorporeal moveable property under Scots law and (so far as consistent with their nature and any enactment) the law applies to them on that basis.
• To be a categorised as a “digital asset” under the Bill, the relevant thing must be from an electronic system which makes it “rivalrous” (i.e. once a person transacts with the notional thing within in the system in a certain way, the system must prevent the person from using the thing in the same way again. Additionally, the system must be capable of retaining an unchangeable record of these transactions).
• A digital asset must also exist independently from the legal system, distinguishing them from other types of incorporeal property (e.g., rights under contract between the parties).  
• Unless the contrary can be shown, a person with exclusive control of a digital asset is the presumed owner with the Bill setting out the determinants of what constitutes exclusive control.
• Although digital assets will be classed as incorporeal moveables (e.g., rights under contracts, intellectual property rights), for the purposes of transferring ownership digital assets will be treated as corporeal moveables (e.g., vehicles, equipment) with exclusive control replacing physical possession (though there will be protection for good faith acquirers for value).

Comment

Our view is that the Bill takes a sensible approach to resolving the status of digital assets in Scots law. Many of its provisions align with our response to the preceding consultation (in full here), including the importance of any definition of “digital asset” being technology neutral. This provides flexibility in regard to future technological advances and allows Scots law to keep pace with other jurisdictions. While treating digital assets as corporeal moveables (for the purposes of acquisition of ownership) may initially appear unusual in approach, digital assets are a distinct, unique class of incorporeal moveable: which is something we flagged in our consultation response. A novel approach is required.

The introduction of the Bill brings Scotland closer in line with England and Wales whose Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill is currently progressing through the UK Parliament, and the approach being taken by each government is similar. Namely, legislative recognition of digital assets as an asset class while largely leaving existing legal principles of private law to operate as they stand. The Bill goes further than its Westminster equivalent in this respect given the latter simply recognises that a thing (including a thing that is digital or electronic in nature) may be an object of property rights notwithstanding it does not fall within the existing recognised categories of property under English law. However, as noted in our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation, Scotland is a smaller jurisdiction and is not able to rely on a steady stream of judicial decisions to develop the law.

The Bill is welcome news for Scotland and its continuing role within the digital assets markets and as a technology hub.

Article co-authored by Zoe Baxter, trainee solicitor at CMS.