The classes into which a DTA does not fall, under the standards every licensee's supervisor applies, with the reference law of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and Asia.
A DTA is tangible asset value, custodial held, by Alkaimi Financial Ecosystem members only, as property, as a digitized bearer instrument, on the Alkaimi Financial Ecosystem ledger: the recognized value of an asset the client already owns, in the client's own DTA holding account on the Alkaimi™ ledger. For each class below the test is stated first, from the standard or statute that sets the test, and the facts of the DTA are applied to that test.
What a DTA is in law: property
A DTA is a thing owned, not a claim, and three legal families now say so in terms.
England and Wales: the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, section 1 (Royal Assent 2 December 2025): a thing digital or electronic in nature is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because the thing is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action.
Civil-law systems: the UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law (2023): a digital asset capable of control can be the subject of proprietary rights.
United States: Uniform Commercial Code Article 12 (2022 amendments), controllable electronic records, adopted state by state. Each recognizes ownership of an electronic thing that is held as property, which is the DTA's form, and a licensed bank holds a DTA as the bank holds any client asset in custody: off the bank's balance sheet, outside the bank's estate.
Not a security
Test. A security is a negotiable claim on an issuer: transferable securities are classes of securities negotiable on the capital market (MiFID II, Directive 2014/65/EU, Article 4(1)(44), and Annex I, Section C); the United Kingdom's specified investments (Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001); Singapore's capital markets products (Securities and Futures Act 2001); and in the United States, SEC v. W.J. Howey Co., 328 U.S. 293 (1946): an investment of money in a common enterprise with an expectation of profit from the efforts of others.
Facts.
No money is invested to obtain a DTA; the client's own asset is recognized.
No DTA is negotiable on any market: no DTA is listed, quoted, traded or offered to the public.
No common enterprise exists: every DTA stack is segregated and nothing is pooled.
No profit is expected from the DTA: the recognized value never moves. The Ninth Circuit held silver bars (Noa v. Key Futures, 638 F.2d 77 (1980)) and gold coins (SEC v. Belmont Reid & Co., 794 F.2d 1388 (1986)) not to be securities because any gain came from the metal's market, not a promoter's efforts; the DTA has no market movement at all.
Digitization changes nothing: the SEC's position (9 July 2025; 28 January 2026) is that the technology does not change the nature of the underlying asset.
The rent agreement
Test. Marine Bank v. Weaver, 455 U.S. 551 (1982): a private agreement giving one party a share of a business's profits is not a security, because the agreement was a private transaction and not an offer to a number of investors.
In the European Union and the United Kingdom, a bilateral contract between an authorised bank and the bank's client, never offered to the public, is a banking contract under the bank's authorisation.
Facts.
The rent agreement is that private agreement: a bilateral contract between a licensed bank and the bank's client for a stated rental period, never offered to the public, under the bank's supervisor.
The rented DTAs remain the client's asset in title and form, income is paid under the agreement, the DTAs return to the client's DTA holding account at the end of the rental period, and the bank's performance during the period is governed by the agreement's terms and conditions under the law of the licensee's jurisdiction.
Not a crypto-asset
Test. MiCA, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, Article 3(1)(5): a digital representation of value or of a right transferred and stored electronically using distributed ledger technology or similar technology, a value the Regulation's recital calls non-intrinsic and based only on the interest of the purchaser. Basel SCO60, in force 1 January 2026, applies to assets that depend on the same technology. Singapore's digital payment token (Payment Services Act 2019) and Hong Kong's virtual asset are representations of value used as a medium of exchange accepted by the public. The United Kingdom's cryptoasset (Financial Services and Markets Act 2023) is any cryptographically secured digital representation of value that can be transferred, stored or traded electronically.
Facts.
The Alkaimi ledger is one custodial ledger under bank supervision, with no distributed ledger and no blockchain, so the DTA sits outside MiCA and SCO60, and the DTA's value is recognized in the asset, not attributed by a purchaser.
A DTA is not a medium of exchange accepted by the public: a DTA moves only between DTA holding accounts, through licensed banks.
Where a definition is drawn wider than the technology, as in the United Kingdom, the DTA is held and moved only by an authorised bank under that bank's own permissions.
The FATF position
Test. The Financial Action Task Force defines a virtual asset as a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded or transferred and used for payment or investment purposes. The definition turns on use, not technology, so the absence of a blockchain does not answer FATF.
Facts.
The answer under FATF is who moves the DTA.
Every DTA is held and moved by a licensed bank, an obliged institution under FATF Recommendations 10 to 21 as implemented in the bank's own jurisdiction, so every DTA movement sits inside the bank's existing due diligence, record-keeping and reporting.
No virtual asset service provider question arises, because no party outside a licensed bank ever holds or moves a DTA.
Not a derivative
Test. A derivative references an underlying and provides for a future payment or delivery: Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. 1a(47); MiFID II, Annex I, Section C, points 4 to 10; the United Kingdom's Regulated Activities Order, Articles 83 to 85.
Facts. A DTA references nothing outside itself, has no counterparty, provides for no future delivery, and carries no margin and no leverage.
Not electronic money
Test. Directive 2009/110/EC, Article 2(2): electronically stored monetary value represented by a claim on the issuer, issued on receipt of funds; Article 11: issued and redeemed at par. The United Kingdom's Electronic Money Regulations 2011 carry the same definition; Singapore's e-money (Payment Services Act 2019) is value denominated in a currency or pegged by the issuer to a currency.
Facts. A DTA is held as property rather than as a claim on an issuer, is issued on receipt of no funds, is denominated in and pegged to no currency, and creates no issuer obligation to redeem at a fixed currency amount.
Not a currency deposit
Test. A deposit is money received by a bank on terms that the bank repays the money: 12 U.S.C. 1813(l); Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, Article 4(1)(1); the United Kingdom's Regulated Activities Order, Article 5. Under the Basel liquidity standard a deposit is a liability with an assumed run-off in stress.
Facts.
The bank receives no money for a DTA, and owes the client no payment on the DTA, because the client holds the DTA as property.
The DTA sits in the client's own DTA holding account, off the bank's balance sheet, and carries no run-off: when the client moves the DTAs, nothing happens to the bank.
Not a stablecoin
Test. A stablecoin holds a value pegged to a specified asset and is redeemed by an issuer: GENIUS Act of 2025, section 2(22) (12 U.S.C. 5901(22)), a digital asset whose issuer is obligated to redeem the asset for a fixed amount of monetary value; MiCA, e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens (Titles III and IV); Hong Kong's Stablecoins Ordinance, in force 1 August 2025; the Monetary Authority of Singapore's stablecoin framework, draft legislation of 1 September 2026.
Facts. A DTA references nothing outside itself and holds no peg. No issuer is obligated to redeem a DTA at a fixed currency amount, so no redeemer's default can reach a DTA.
Not a currency, and not central bank money
Test. Currency is the nation's note and coin, issued under the nation's own law (Federal Reserve notes under section 16 of the Federal Reserve Act; euro banknotes under Article 128 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). Central bank money, the balances banks hold at the central bank, is the central bank's liability.
Facts. Pegisai™ creates no currency and prices nothing in any currency; a DTA is neither a nation's note nor a private issue of a monetary item, and is held as property rather than as a liability of a bank or an issuer.
Where the classification rests
In each jurisdiction the classification rests with the licensed bank's supervisor under that jurisdiction's law, confirmed by the licensee's counsel.
Nothing on this page is an offer, a solicitation or a public offering, or legal, financial or investment advice.
This page contains some forward-looking statements. Read Pegisai’s statement on forward-looking statements.