Comparative characteristics of virtual assets and other objects of private law relations

The article is devoted to the comparison of characteristics of virtual assets and other objects of private law relations. Due to the lack of thorough scientific research and monographs that would classify virtual assets and these objects, it became necessary to analyse in detail the regulatory acts and case law of Ukraine and several leading jurisdictions regulating this area, and to systematise the conclusions reached by other scholars who have studied certain aspects of this issue in order to determine which category of objects of private law relations is more correct and useful from the point of view of development of the Ukrainian economy and protection of investors’ rights. In order to conduct this study of the modern categorisation of virtual assets and, in some cases, to equate them with existing objects of private law relations, systematic, comparative, hypothetical, analytical and inductive methods were used. As a result of the study, virtual assets were compared with property, money, securities, property rights, works and services, results of intellectual and creative activity, information, and intangible goods. Definitions of virtual assets in the legal acts of different jurisdictions were compared. It was analysed how other jurisdictions address the issues of classification and correlation of virtual assets and other objects of private law relations. Consideration is also given to the expediency of including the term ‘digital property’ in Ukrainian legislation on virtual assets, as well as the possibility of other classifications in view of the need to harmonise Ukrainian and European legislation. Another result of the inclusion of this category of objects is that virtual assets also become property, although they exist exclusively in the digital environment. It is concluded that a significant part of virtual assets, depending on their category, can be classified as either securities or means of payment. At the same time, the Ukrainian legislator has chosen a different path: all virtual assets have been effectively equated with property due to the absence of special regulations in this field.