Maria Bolobonova

Practice areas

• Legal support for fintech projects.
• Finance and investments.
• Criminal law and procedure (economic crimes).
• Arbitration and civil litigation.

Education

• Ural State Law University (formerly Ural State Law Academy), Honors Diploma.
• Postgraduate studies at Ural State Law University, Department of Business Law.
• Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Key Fintech projects

• Since 2024: Legal support for cross-border transactions involving digital currencies and assets for a corporate group.
• Since 2024: Legal advisory for cryptocurrency mining operations.
• 2022–present: Legal guidance for a broker/dealer/asset manager handling digital assets in Kyrgyzstan.
• 2021–present: End-to-end legal support for investment platform operators in Russia, from software development to launch and ongoing compliance.
• 2019–present: Representation of clients in criminal cases related to cryptocurrency and investment activities across Russia, Singapore, and France.
• 2018–present: Legal structuring for digital asset projects (asset management funds, investment firms).
• 2017–present: Full-cycle legal support for virtual asset exchanges (VAEs) in foreign jurisdictions and Russia, including platform development, launch, and operational compliance.
• 2017–present: Litigation representation in disputes involving crypto exchanges, Central Bank of Russia, Roskomnadzor, and other regulators.

Research & professional engagement

• Advisor to the President and Member of the Digital Assets Council, National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR).
• Member, BRICS Payments & Fintech Working Group (Business Council).
• Expert Council Member, State Duma of the Russian Federation, on cryptocurrency legislation.
• Working Group Member, State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT, and Communications.
• Member, National Digital Economy Association.
• Expert, Skolkovo Innovation Center (Digital Economy Regulation).
• Participant, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) grant: "Investor Rights in Banking and Finance Amid Digitalization: A Comparative Study of Russia and East Asian Financial Hubs".
• Speaker at Russian and international conferences.

Publications

• Author/co-author of 20+ monographs and textbooks, including:
• Legal Support for Economic Modernization and Digital Transformation. Investment Regulation in the Digital Age (Ed. V.S. Belykh. Moscow: Prospekt, 2022).
• Digital Rights and Business Law (Ed. V.S. Belykh. Moscow: Prospekt, 2021).
• Asset Tokenization and Stablecoins: Trends in the Digital Economy (Moscow: Prospekt, 2021).
• Co-author: "Big Data Regulation in Commodity and Financial Markets" (Eurasian Advocacy Journal, 2020, indexed in VAK, RSCI).
• Co-author: "Cryptocurrency Derivatives: Regulatory Challenges" (Yurist Journal, 2019).

Teaching and academic activities

Developer and lecturer of FinTech/LegalTech programs, including courses for the Central Bank of Russia.

Faculty positions at Ural State Law University, MGIMO, and GAUGN, teaching:
business law and digital transformation, regulation of digital platforms, financial assets, and currencies, legal frameworks for fintech projects.

Relevant publications