§ 1516.5.Escheatment of Unclaimed Digital Financial Assets Held By Business Associations

Cryptocurrency and similar digital assets do not fit neatly into the deposit-account or securities frameworks this chapter otherwise uses, so Section 1516.5, added for the 2026 statutory year, builds a dedicated rule around them. A digital financial asset escheats after three years measured from either the date a communication to the owner bounced back undelivered, by mail or electronic messaging, or the date of the owner's last exercise of an ownership interest in the account, when the holder does not otherwise receive or track undelivered communications. That three-year clock resets immediately the moment the owner takes any of a list of qualifying actions: transacting in the account, electronically accessing it, engaging with another account or property at the same holder, or otherwise doing something that reasonably shows the holder the owner knows the asset exists.

The section also sets its own jurisdictional and notice rules tailored to digital assets. The owner's last known address can come from a standard mailing address or from any code or description in the holder's records that identifies the owner's state, with the mailing address controlling if the two conflict. Before the asset becomes reportable, the holder must send notice, six to twelve months ahead of time, by certified mail with return receipt if a mailing address is on file, or electronically if the owner has consented to that method and no address is available. The notice follows the same format and warning language this batch's other notice sections use, and returning a signed confirmation form or otherwise making contact restarts the escheat period. Once a digital asset is eligible for escheatment, the holder of any partial cryptographic key to it has sixty days to try to obtain the remaining keys needed to transfer the asset.