NFT as an Object of Legal Regulation

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of the legal nature of a non-fungible token — NFT. The paper discusses the concept and types of tokens. The author defines a token as a unit of accounting in a distributed ledger that digitally represents financial instruments or other assets that expresses the economic value of the objects being represented and allows the rights associated with them to be exercised. According to a common point of view, NFT serves as a means of digital expression of a particular object, it has characteristics (signs) inherent exclusively to it, by virtue of which it cannot be exchanged for another token, and the cost of one NFT is not conditioned by the cost of other tokens. The author notes that the listed features are not inherent in NFT in all cases. In addition, using the example of NFT, the author draws attention to the problem of artificial limitations of the mechanism of legal regulation of fundamentally new digital objects. It is determined that, with regard to NFT, today in the Russian Federation, both the legislator and the financial market regulator maintain the status quo: the state intervenes in public relations that develop during the turnover of non-fungible tokens only if transactions involving them violate the law. Meanwhile, it can be expected that eventually the problems of the issue and circulation of NFT in the financial market will receive their regulatory and legal resolution.