The rapid growth of the decentralized gaming finance (GameFi) market is accompanied by a systemic shortage of criminal law protection in this area. Established approaches to the object of criminal law protection do not always allow us to consistently classify crimes committed in relation to or using game tokens and NFT assets in the GameFi environment. The purpose of the study is to develop theoretical and methodological foundations for the qualification of GameFi crimes. The research objectives include an analysis of the legal nature of digital gaming assets, a critical assessment of existing doctrinal approaches (property theory, information concept, sui generis, integrative and functional approaches) and the construction of an author’s model of criminal law protection. The paper uses methods of systematic analysis of scientific sources, regulations and judicial practice, comparative legal analysis, as well as the method of conceptual modeling using relational ontology and control theory. The result of the research is the concept of differentiated control, which identifies four levels of digital asset manageability: technological, user, contractual and regulatory, and economic. Based on it, the questionnaire K‑U‑R‑S‑O has been developed, which makes it possible to accurately correlate criminal encroachment with the relevant composition of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The proposed model ensures technological neutrality and practical applicability in investigative practice.
Elina Sidorenko (Thu,) studied this question.