The article attempts to identify the formal and essential features of the modern virtual currency, to provide a classification of virtual currencies, to identify the main factors influencing the demand and supply of virtual currencies, to analyze the key indicators of development of virtual currency schemes to determine their market prospects in payment system. The study determined that virtual currencies differ from traditional currencies and electronic money in the narrow sense. The main innovations related to the development of schemes of virtual currency are two key elements: the asset factor and payment factor. The main criteria for the classification of virtual currencies are: 1) the ability to convert virtual currency to traditional currency; 2) the organizational and technological features of the issue of virtual currencies. The study identified the main advantages of using virtual currencies for payment participants: 1) relatively short time for verification and settlement of payment transactions; 2) the high anonymity pf payment transactions; 3) relatively low transaction costs. However, currently only a few of decentralized schemes of virtual currencies are original from the point of view of a cryptographic scheme of issuing and accounting currency units. Among the virtual currencies with the highest market capitalization in the world are: Bitcoin, Litecoin and Reeple. Refs 32. Figs 5. Tables 3.