Digital currency: features of regulation in the Russian Federation
Authors: Rozhdestvenskaya T. E. , Guznov A. G. 
Published: June 2021

The subject of research, relevance. The development of digital technologies has an impact on almost all areas of society, including the financial sphere. This is the reason for a serious controversy to develop recently and to continue both at the international and national levels in terms of approaches to their legal regulation. This discussion affects both public law and private law. The emergence of such a phenomenon as digital currencies raises the question of their legalization for legislators of various states. The answer to such a question cannot be found without studying the legal consequences of making such a decision for both individuals and the financial system of the state. The purpose. The article puts forward and substantiates a hypothesis that the choice of legal methods for regulating virtual assets is a matter of legal policy, and not just matter of research in the field of defining virtual assets as objects of law or type of property. As a result, when choosing methods of legal regulation of virtual (digital) assets, not only the impact of these legal entities on legal economic turnover (including such issues as the possibility of using excess generated electricity or taxation issues) should be assessed, but also the risk of stimulating illegal "economic" turnover (turnover of things and services in the Darknet, limited turnover of things, for example, drugs), as well as the impact on the financial system. The methodological basis. Various scientific methods of cognition were used to write the article, including system-structural, formal-logical, comparative-legal and dialectical. The research is based on the principles of interdependence and interconnectedness of social processes. The main results, scope of application. The article examines the main approaches to the regulation of digital currencies, studies the phenomenon of digital currency itself, assesses the circumstances that aroused massive interest and enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies. An analysis of current positive legal material is presented, in particular, the approach to the regulation of digital currency contained in the Russian Federal Law of July 31, 2020 No. 259- FZ "On digital financial assets, digital currency and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation". The main differences between digital currencies and such a legal phenomenon as digital rights (including utilitarian digital rights and digital financial assets) are noted. It is noted that in most Russian scientific works in the field of law devoted to digital currencies, attention is paid to the definition of digital currency as an object of civil rights, the foreign experience of attempts of legal regulation of cryptocurrency is considered, emphasis is placed on the positive aspects of the legalization of cryptocurrency for individuals, the risks of legalization of cryptocurrency for individuals, as well as the tasks of regulators in the digital economy are investigated. In addition, some scientific works are devoted to issues related to the digitalization of the economy and digital security. However, little attention is paid to the consequences of the legalization of digital currencies for the monetary system of the state and the potential risks for the stability of monetary systems. Conclusions. Interest in digital currencies may decrease in following situations. Firstly, if the services provided by payment systems are more efficient, reliable, affordable and cheap for the consumer. Secondly, during the implementation of the central bank digital currency project (in Russian case - the digital ruble), since digital currencies issued by central banks have the advantages of private digital currencies, but are devoid of their disadvantages.