Regulation
The calendar everyone is working to.
Two pieces of legislation set the timeline for digital asset succession in England and Wales. Neither imposes new duties on individual holders. Both shape the environment WYTYC and the firms it works with are building inside.
Property (Digital Assets etc.) Act
FSMA Cryptoasset Regulations
FCA final rules and guidance published
WYTYC build & opinion
FCA Gateway window
Full regime live
The Property (Digital Assets etc.) Act 2025 settled a question that had been unclear for years: digital assets, crypto included, are property. They can be owned, inherited and passed through an estate like anything else a person leaves behind. That is what makes succession planning for them a matter for the client's solicitor rather than an afterthought.
The FSMA Cryptoasset Regulations 2026 bring cryptoasset firms within the FCA's remit from October 2027. The activities they regulate, safeguarding a client's assets, dealing, arranging deals, all turn on a firm being able to control or move client funds. WYTYC is built so that it cannot. The client signs alone. WYTYC holds a single key within a quorum and can never form one on its own. Nothing moves without the client's own authority, and at succession, nothing moves without the solicitor and WYTYC acting together.