Abstract: The article is devoted to what are the latest trends in the field of monetary relations.

At the same time, the factors under the influence of which they arose are globalization and digitalization. It was they who created the external framework for the development of monetary relations. At the same time, monetary relations themselves, being transformed, form new phenomena. The phenomena of digital, electronic, virtual money and cryptocurrencies are currently devoted to a certain number of scientific works. Here we can mention the publications of Belinska Y. V., Volosovich S. V., Sapachuk Y. M. and others.

However, it is worth noting here that these phenomena sometimes do not yet have a clear assessment by the scientific community. Existing discussions regarding the essence and relationship between various modern monetary phenomena have led to certain scientific progress. Nevertheless, the economic nature of digital, electronic, virtual money and cryptocurrencies, as well as their place in the system of modern monetary relations, is not obvious. The aim of the article is to study the nature of digital money, its varieties, in particular cryptocurrencies, as well as an attempt to classify them in modern conditions.

The analysis conducted in the article showed that: 1) As social production evolved, so did money. Currently, this process has not yet ended.

2) With the advent of the Internet, new technologies have appeared that contribute to transformational changes in the economy, in particular, in the way people make payments.

3) All money that functions thanks to Internet technologies is digital money, although it would be more correct to call it a digital format of the money that functions in the traditional economy. 4) They include electronic money, which is an Internet extension of fiat money, and 5) virtual currencies, which are a digital format of private money.

6) In the composition of virtual currencies, at least two main groups can be distinguished, which are related to the characteristics of the corresponding money. 7) The first group of types of private money is a digital type of credit money, which is backed by a specific private person who has assumed obligations in connection with the issuance of the corresponding means of payment and is responsible for their fulfillment. 8) The second group (cryptocurrencies) is a digital variety of private product-fiduciary money, which after its emission completely loses connection with its issuer.