Cryptocurrency in Russian law: Surrogates, “Other Assets” and Digital Currency

Abstract

For the last five years there has been a global boom of interest in cryptocurrencies, followedby the fall of their rates; at the same time, there was a wave of enthusiasm regarding the publicoffering of tokens (ICO) and disillusionment in them (due partly to the active counteraction byAmerican and other influential regulators). Disputes on doctrine moved from suggestions of anew object of property rights to prohibitive initiatives. As these eventful years have shown, theglobal financial system is sufficiently stable to digest even such a decentralized phenomenonas cryptocurrency. In my opinion, it is now time to recall the tribulations of former discussionsand draw a conclusion concerning their interim (one hopes) normative results.