Ethereum is currently in the spotlight as the United Kingdom has officially incorporated digital assets like ETH into its property law. Concurrently, derivatives traders are quietly rebuilding leverage following a significant wipeout in October. This dual development, encompassing both the legal shift and the resurgence in open interest, highlights Ethereum's increasingly integral role in both traditional legal systems and the cryptocurrency futures markets.
UK Passes Law Directly Strengthening ETH Property Rights
Digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have now received explicit recognition as personal property in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This development follows the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 receiving Royal Assent and coming into force on December 2.
The Act clarifies that a "thing," including digital or electronic items, is not disqualified from being the object of personal property rights simply because it does not fit into the traditional categories of "thing in possession" or "thing in action" under English law. Essentially, lawmakers have established a pathway for a third category of personal property to encompass assets like crypto-tokens and non-fungible tokens.
The UK government has stated that this change confirms digital assets can be recognized as personal property, thereby offering enhanced protection to victims of digital theft and fraud. These individuals can now rely on a clearer statutory basis when pursuing legal action. Courts will be empowered to apply existing property law tools more directly to crypto assets, including the freezing, tracing, and recovery of misappropriated coins. Furthermore, digital asset balances can be handled more effectively in cases of insolvency or exchange failures.
Legal analysts suggest that the Act also alleviates uncertainty for financial institutions, custodians, and funds intending to hold or utilize crypto under English-law frameworks. With digital assets now statutorily recognized as objects of property rights, it becomes more straightforward to document security interests and collateral arrangements over ETH and other tokens within secured lending and structured finance transactions.
This legislation is applicable across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and became effective immediately upon its passage. It aligns with the recommendations put forth in the Law Commission’s 2023 digital assets report.
ETH Open Interest Climbs Again After October Crash
Meanwhile, Ethereum futures open interest has been on an upward trend since the significant market downturn on October 10. This rebuilding of open interest indicates that derivatives traders are once again becoming more exposed, according to chart data shared by analyst Ted (@TedPillows). The ETHUSDT perpetual contract on Binance Futures is currently showing a steady increase in positioning, even as the spot price trades below its early autumn levels.
The accompanying chart illustrates Ethereum’s daily candles on Binance Futures, alongside aggregated open interest in coins from the analytics platform Velo. This data reveals a collapse in leverage in mid-October, marked by a sharp drop in open interest. Subsequently, open interest has gradually increased through November and into early December as traders have slowly initiated new positions.
Ted anticipates that a substantial portion of this rebuilt open interest may be "wiped out in the coming months." He posits that market makers might drive Ethereum into a volatile trading range to liquidate leveraged long and short positions. In such a scenario, open interest could decline again as positions are forced to close, even if the spot price does not return to the levels seen during the October crash.