Digital financial assets and digital currency: legal nature and legal regulation of turnover

Abstract

In the past few years digital financial assets and digital currency have been getting more popularity among the tools of digital economy. Due to the demand for turnover of digital financial assets and digital currency, as well as the formation of an increasing number of jural relations, the object of which they are, they require efficient legal regulation, which is not a simple task for the legislator because of their dinamic development. Lack of such regulation causes the formation of non-uniform regulatory enforcements practices and the unpredictability of legal relations that are developed in relation to these instruments. One of the keys to the formation of effective regulation is a definition and precise legislative consolidation of the legal nature of digital financial assets and digital currency. This article analyzes the approaches to determining the legal nature of digital financial assets and digital currency in the current domestic legislation at the stage when such legislation has not been formed yet based on the analysis of regulatory enforcement practices and clarifications of state bodies. The current legislation is also analyzed in terms of the presence of legislative gaps taking into account the relationship between the relevant regulation and the provisions contained in other, non-major legislation. Moreover, the authors also analyzed the approaches to the regulation of the turnover of digital financial assets and digital currency abroad. Such approaches were classified as well, which allowed to identify the main trends of regulation of their turnover and to determine their legal nature.