The following thesis is intended to thoroughly analyze the new form of money called cryptocurrency. This digital revolution in finance carries many questions that remain unanswered or unstudied to date. The relevancy of the topic is undisputable: the cryptocurrency market has seen high fluctuations throughout the 2017, starting with the rise of Bitcoin's exchange rate at the beginning of the year and followed by the acceptance of Bitcoin as a means of payment in different countries. Moreover, the countries have commenced to actively discuss the regulations of cryptocurrencies, and some of them have even launched their own national cryptocurrencies while others have announced plans to follow in their footsteps.;This master thesis tests two hypotheses The first one states that cryptocurrencies have a potential to substitute traditional money in the future, and the research conducts a qualitative analysis of internal and external factors that have influence on the acceptance of cryptocurrencies in the world, as well as studies three cryptocurrencies that could substitute traditional money. Moreover, the research involved the collection of primary data through distributing survey, where 99 respondents were offered to answer questions related to the cryptocurrency. The research reached the following conclusions on the first hypothesis: 1. Among the cryptocurrencies in circulation there is no suitable one for reciprocal payments at the moment. There are two cryptocurrencies that have a potential, but not any of them has resolved the problem of the volatility. 2. According to the results of the survey, people tend to have a neutral attitude towards cryptocurrencies, and there are mixed results for the question asking to estimate the probability of cryptocurrencies substituting traditional money. However, the majority of respondents reckon that the traditional currencies are likely to become fully digital in the future.;The second hypothesis aims to figure out the reasons why countries opt for launching national cryptocurrencies. The research has analyzed fourteen countries that have launched or are planning to launch national cryptocurrencies and reached the following conclusions: 1. There are different reasons why countries launch or consider launching national cryptocurrencies, but they can be divided into two groups: economic and technological. Generally, national cryptocurrencies are launched to circumvent sanctions, trace the cash turnover, fight with tax evasion, and cut down costs for printing and production of physical forms of money. 2. The countries tend to issue centralized and non-anonymous national cryptocurrencies that will be tied to their current money to solve the volatility problem.
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