UK Court of Appeal: RuneScape gold is “property” — a potential landmark for virtual assets
A UK Court of Appeal has ruled that virtual gold in Old School RuneScape qualifies as “property” under the Theft Act 1968, clearing the way for criminal charges in a high-value in‑game theft case. The decision could reshape how courts treat virtual items that can be bought, sold or exchanged for real-world value.
Case background
- Defendant: Andrew Lakeman, a former content developer at RuneScape maker Jagex.
- Allegation: Lakeman is accused of accessing 68 player accounts (via hacking or account-recovery credentials), extracting 705 billion in-game gold pieces and selling them for a mix of Bitcoin and fiat.
- Proceeds: Approximately £543,123 (about $748,385).
- Charges: Five indictments including theft, computer misuse and money laundering.
What the court decided
Lord Justice Popplewell found that RuneScape gold pieces are “assets which have an ascertainable monetary value and which may be traded for that value both in the game and outside the game.” That formulation allowed an appeal to proceed against an earlier judgment that had rejected criminal liability on the ground that the in-game currency was not “rivalrous” because its supply is uncapped.
Popplewell rejected that reasoning. He held that an uncapped supply does not rule out rivalry — you cannot own the same unit of gold as someone else, and transferring gold necessarily deprives at least one party of that asset. To illustrate, he compared RuneScape gold to paper clips, which remain property even if their manufacture and supply are not limited: “the manufacture and supply of them [is] infinite, in the sense that it is not capped at any finite number.”
Why the distinction between criminal and civil law matters
Legal commentator Ashley Fairbrother (partner at Edmonds Marshall McMahon) told Decrypt that the court’s approach highlights a crucial distinction: what counts as “property” for the purposes of the Theft Act is a criminal-law concept and does not have to mirror civil-law property rules. That undercuts the argument that Jagex’s terms and conditions — which state that in-game currency is not the user’s “own private property” — automatically make disputes purely civil matters. Popplewell found that the statutory criminal definition can stand independently.
What this means for gamers, developers and crypto
- Precedent for in-game assets: The ruling strengthens the case that virtual items with real-world value can be the subject of criminal theft charges, even if their in‑game supply is effectively unlimited.
- Enforcement and recovery: Because the alleged sale involved Bitcoin and fiat, the case underscores how virtual-game thefts can intersect with crypto markets and money-laundering investigations — and how blockchain-linked evidence might be used in prosecutions.
- Limits on T&Cs: Game operators’ terms may still govern civil rights in platform disputes, but they won’t necessarily shield bad actors from criminal liability if the assets meet the statutory definition of property.
Impact on cryptocurrencies
Fairbrother also emphasized that the decision is unlikely to change the legal status of Bitcoin in the UK. English courts have treated Bitcoin as property since the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce’s 2019 statement, and more recently the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 (which came into force in December 2025) further confirmed that digital assets such as Bitcoin can be property at common law.
Bottom line
This Court of Appeal ruling marks an important recognition that virtual game economies can produce legally cognizable property interests — and that theft from those economies can trigger criminal liability. For the crypto and gaming sectors alike, it’s a reminder that digital value crossing into the real world will increasingly draw real‑world legal consequences.
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