Formation of the legal regime of cryptocurrency in Russia and foreign countries

Purpose: This paper aims to study the legal status of the cryptocurrency, which has developed in judicial practice and explanations of the authorized bodies given the actual absence of legislative regulation of this institution both in Russia and foreign countries. Methodology: The research methodology is based on the systematic and structural approaches, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization, comparison and analogy. Results: Usage of cryptocurrency by an increasing number of individuals and legal entities in various civil law relations has become an objective reality and a certain challenge for the law enforcement in the absence of legislative consolidation of this institution. The author proposes to the public authorities to abandon the use of the term «money surrogate» in relation to the cryptocurrency, as it makes no legal certainty; and to allow the possibility of applying the legal regime of «other property» to cryptocurrency at the level of Explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, allowing to protect the rights of owners of cryptocurrency at least to a minimum extent and to give the legislator time to develop a single well-thought-out concept of legal regulation of cryptocurrency...