Cryptocurrency as a subject of criminal offenses against property: national and international law
Authors: Kryshevych Olha ,   National Academy of Internal Affairs, Roschyna Inna ,   Vadim Hetman Kyiv National University of Economics
Published: May 2023

The article defines the essence of the concepts of cryptocurrency, bitcoin and mining, considers the status of cryptocurrency in Ukraine and other countries. In addition, problems related to the uncertain status of cryptocurrency are indicated, ways to solve them are proposed, special attention is drawn to the disclosure of the conceptual aspect in the qualification of criminal offenses related to cryptocurrency. At present, the use of cryptocurrencies as a financial instrument by various states is increasingly common, and Ukraine is no exception. According to the reports of the Chainalysis platform, Ukraine ranks high in the ranking of both the general use of crypto-assets and their use for illegal purposes. According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, our state is a leader in the use of virtual assets among the population; the Ukrainian community of blockchain developers is one of the largest in the world and is in the top 3. Cryptocurrency is a digital (virtual) currency, the unit of which is a coin, protected from counterfeiting, as it is encrypted information that cannot be copied, because the emission and accounting of cryptocurrency is based on asymmetric encryption using various cryptographic protection methods, such as Proof-of- work and/or Proof-of-stake. The physical feature characterizes the technical aspects of the functioning of the cryptocurrency, the economic feature is determined by the price that interested parties can pay for it, and the legal feature is established on the basis of a consistent analysis of the types of civil rights objects provided for by the current legislation. So, in the context of criminal law regulation, cryptocurrency is data in electronic form that has a price and is the subject of the right to information. The attractiveness of cryptocurrencies for the criminal world is due to the fact that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are based on the principle of decentralization and the Blockchain system: electronic money is not tied to and is not controlled by any financial authority of any country, users of the system remain anonymous and have equal statuses. Cryptocurrency, the main advantage is its anonymity, in addition, the personal data of the owner of the electronic wallet is kept secret and it is only a set of symbols by which it is impossible to determine the owner, therefore it is impossible to recognize the name or address of such a user, and the history of transactions is open information. Agreements related to cryptocurrency are also anonymous, besides, they are irreversible. Cybercrime has also become widespread, in particular criminal offenses with cryptocurrencies, because in Ukraine and the world, individuals and legal entities are increasingly faced with their illegal acquisition, however, in our country, the legal status of cryptocurrencies has not yet been determined, in addition, so far in Ukraine does not provide for liability for illegal possession of cryptocurrency, currently in the world there are already quite widespread situations of criminal offenses against property (theft, robbery, extortion, fraud), where the object of encroachment is computer equipment, hard drives or portable crypto wallets together with the corresponding passwords from them for the purpose of taking possession of cryptocurrency and receiving funds from its further conversion.