The legal regulatory model of virtual currency circulation: A socio-legal study

Artemov, Nikolay | 2020-02-28

The article examines a model of legal circulation of virtual currency. The issue of the legal nature of virtual currencies remains controversial. This generates a problem of choosing the most suitable and effective approach to regulation of virtual currencies circulation. The article analyzes approaches to determining the legal nature of cryptocurrencies and the experience of state regulation in Switzerland, Japan, the USA and China. Methods of legal analysis, synthesis, specific scientific methods, and social research survey have been employed in this article. As a result of the conducted socio-legal study, it has been found that there is no unified strategy of legal regulation of virtual currencies, which affects their perception by recipients. This conclusion is based on the comparative analysis of legal regulation of cryptocurrencies circulation in such countries as Japan, the USA, and Switzerland. By contrast with these countries, China has significantly restricted usage of cryptocurrencies, actually having chosen the way of banning vir-tual currencies. The inconsistency of legal regulation can be observed not only between different countries, but also within one state, which is proved by the situa-tion in the USA and Switzerland. At the present time, the system of government regulation of cryptocurrencies circulation is the most effective in Japan.