The views of scientists on the economic essence of cryptocurrencies are сharacterized by pluralism, but most often this kind of virtual currency is compared with the economic category “money”. Money is usually understood as a universal equivalent that serves as a measure of the value of any goods and services and can be exchanged directly for them. Giving an economic characteristic of the cryptocurrency, it seems appropriate to apply a functional approach and consider the cryptocurrency through the prism of the functions of money as the closest economic concept. It is customary to allocate the following functions of money: measures of value, means of circulation, means of payment and means of accumulation.