Definition and Typology of Digital Currencies in Russian Law
Critical Assessment of the Existing Legal Definition and Strategies for Its Improvement
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22150085 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Semen Aleksandrovich Groshev (0009-0001-7835-076X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 163-175 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Право и политика (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2454-0706 • E-ISSN: 2454-0706 |
| Publisher | Aurora Group, s.r.o (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.7256/2454-0706.2026.1.77613 |
| OpenAlex | W7127443059 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
This article presents a critical examination of the legal definition of digital currency, along with the formulation of scientifically grounded recommendations for its enhancement. The subject of the research is legal norms and doctrinal approaches to the definition of the concept of «digital currency», its relationship with related categories in the field of distributed registry technology, as well as scientific and practical grounds for improving the legal definition under consideration. As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that the current definition has a number of significant drawbacks. It has been proven that these defects create legal uncertainty in the qualification of a number of assets and complicate the systemic regulation of the crypto assets market. Based on a comprehensive analysis, the author develops and presents a detailed typology of digital currencies based on key features (consensus mechanism, functional purpose, method of origin, etc.), which organizes and groups the objects that fall under the definition under consideration. To overcome the identified problems, the author justifies replacing the term «digital currency» with the more accurate designation «unbacked cryptoasset» as the key proposal. A new, adjusted definition is proposed, taking into account both the existing shortcomings of the current definition and the best approaches of foreign regulation (in particular, European crypto-assets regulation, MiCA). It is proved that the proposed concept is organically integrated into the established Russian conceptual system and covers the entire range of decentralized assets that are currently in the gray zone of legal regulation. The importance of introducing the umbrella term «crypto-asset» to systematize existing concepts in the Russian Federation is separately noted. The research results may be utilized for the further development of legislation related to digital assets
Theoretical definition · Typology · Blockchain Technology Applications and Security · Digital Transformation in Law · Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation
| Highly cited | No |
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