Virginia Governor Signs HB 798 to Extend Unclaimed Property Law to Digital Assets
Virginia enacted House Bill 798 to move unclaimed digital assets to state custody in kind after five years, with administrators required to hold them for at least one year before liquidation.
Fact Check
The strongest evidence is the official Virginia legislative source, HB798HC1 - 2026 Regular Session | LIS. That bill text directly supports the substantive parts of the claim: digital assets are brought within unclaimed property treatment, certain digital assets are presumed abandoned after five years, they are to be delivered to the administrator in native form, and the administrator must hold them for at least one year before sale. The PANews article also reports that the governor signed HB 798, aligning with the user statement, though it is secondary. Search-result evidence for The Block is consistent with the same signing event and the one-year holding rule, but because the page was not fetchable, it is only corroborative. I therefore assess the claim as likely true, with medium confidence because the signing event itself was not confirmed from a directly fetched gubernatorial or enrolled-bill page in this run.
Summary
Virginia enacted House Bill 798 to extend the state’s unclaimed property framework to digital assets. Under the law, unclaimed crypto assets must be transferred to state custody in kind after five years rather than being immediately converted to cash. The measure takes effect on July 1, 2026, and requires state administrators to hold the digital assets for at least one year before liquidation.
Terms & Concepts
- Digital assets: Blockchain-based assets such as cryptocurrencies or tokenized holdings recorded on a distributed ledger.
- In kind: A transfer method in which the original asset is delivered directly, rather than being converted into cash first.
- Unclaimed property laws: Rules that require abandoned or uncollected assets to be transferred to government custody after a set dormancy period.