A virtual asset is a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded or transferred and used for payment or investment purposes. The term comes from the Financial Action Task Force, which uses it in its anti-money laundering standards to cover cryptocurrencies and similar tokens. The businesses that exchange, transfer or hold them for others are covered in full in Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP).
The FATF definition excludes digital forms of ordinary national currencies and securities or other financial assets already covered by its standards. Countries that follow the FATF must license or register VASPs and apply the travel rule to transfers of virtual assets. Other laws use different words for much the same thing: the EU's MiCA speaks of crypto-assets, and older US guidance of virtual currency.