Virtual assets as objects of civil rights: the problem of qualification between property, property rights, and a “digital thing”

The article is dedicated to a comprehensive study of virtual assets as objects of civil rights and analyzes the issue of their legal qualification between property, property rights, and «digital things». The paper emphasizes the growing role of digital assets in modern civil circulation, driven by the development of digital technologies, blockchain systems, and decentralized financial instruments. It notes that the lack of a well-established approach to defining the legal nature of digital values creates difficulties for their effective legal regulation and the protection of the rights of participants in civil legal relations. The author analyzes the main scientific approaches to understanding digital assets as a type of property, as an object of property rights, or as an independent new object of civil rights-a «digital thing». The peculiarities of each of these concepts, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as the limits of applying traditional civil law constructs to digital objects that do not have a material form but possess economic value and transferability, are revealed. Special attention is given to the relationship between electronic property and classic objects of civil rights, including issues related to the emergence, exercise, and termination of rights over them. The article examines the current legislation of Ukraine regarding the circulation of virtual assets, provisions of the Civil Code of Ukraine and special regulatory acts, as well as identifies existing gaps and conflicts in legal regulation. The conclusion is drawn that the uncertainty regarding the legal nature of crypto-assets negatively impacts their use in contractual relations, inheritance, securing obligations, and judicial protection. Based on the research findings, the necessity of forming a coordinated and comprehensive approach to the qualification of virtual assets within the system of objects of civil rights is substantiated, with the aim of ensuring legal certainty and stability in civil turnover in the context of the digital economy.