Digital Asset
Any asset that exists in digital form and has economic value, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and tokenized securities.
What is Digital Asset?
A digital asset is any asset that exists in digital form, can be owned or controlled, and has economic value. In finance, the term broadly covers cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ether), stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing ownership of unique items, tokenized securities (stocks or bonds represented as blockchain tokens), and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Digital assets are distinguished from traditional digital content — such as music files or photos — primarily by verifiable scarcity and transferability enforced by cryptographic proof on a blockchain. Regulators in the US, EU, and elsewhere are developing frameworks to classify and govern digital assets, with the key distinction being whether a given asset constitutes a commodity, a security, or currency.
Example
The SEC has argued that many cryptocurrencies sold through initial coin offerings (ICOs) qualify as securities under the Howey Test, making them digital assets subject to securities law. Bitcoin and Ether have been treated as commodities by US regulators, placing them under CFTC oversight — illustrating how 'digital asset' encompasses multiple regulatory categories.
Source: SEC — Digital Assets