CRYPTOCURRENCIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE FUTURE

The subject article deals with the impact of cryptocurrencies on the future of financial and banking stability, the SWIFT system and the economy, as well as the attitudes of countries and some international institutions towards them. In today's world, we are witnessing the rapid development and digital technological revolution in all economic, financial and banking streams. This has led to the emergence of new monetary instruments that are compatible with the development of society and the spread of the Internet. Many financial, commercial and economic crises, epidemics and other factors contributed to the introduction of cryptocurrencies. The introduction of cryptocurrencies brought a series of challenges and risks associated with their use, such as money laundering, terrorist financing and trade in illegal goods, as well as challenges related to legal and regulatory issues that harm the economy, financial and banking stability in many countries. There are two research questions addressed in this paper: 1) Do virtual currencies have the same standards as money in its current form? 2) What are the implications of using virtual currencies? The scientific objective of this research is to describe and scientifically explain the main components of virtual currencies as a form of monetary policy and identify the challenges they face. The social goal of the research is to present future prospects for their use to the scientific and social public based on the views of countries, international organizations and central banks on the issuance of virtual currencies and to point out possible obstacles in their proper application. Almost all basic methods of knowledge and research were used in the preparation of the article. Of the general scientific methods, the statistical and comparative method was applied, and of the data collection methods exclusively the method of content analysis of the documents listed in the list of used literature.