Poland’s lower house has approved a long‑delayed crypto assets bill to align national rules with the EU’s MiCA framework.
Summary
- Poland’s parliament has passed a cryptocurrency regulation bill to implement the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCA), against the backdrop of a multi‑million‑dollar fraud investigation into local exchange Zondacrypto.
- Prosecutors estimate user losses at more than 350 million zlotys (around $96 million), with thousands of customers unable to withdraw funds and investigators probing alleged “Russian funds” and foreign political influence.
- The move comes after President Karol Nawrocki twice vetoed earlier MiCA implementation bills as “excessive, vague, and disproportionate,” warning that heavy‑handed rules could drive crypto business out of Poland.
Parliament backs MiCA bill under pressure from Zondacrypto scandal
With lawmakers under pressure to act before a July implementation deadline and amid public anger over the collapse of exchange Zondacrypto. According to Reuters, the legislation will give Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) clear powers over crypto‑asset service providers, introduce licensing and reporting obligations, and create criminal liability for serious violations tied to token issuance and exchange operations.
The political backdrop is unusually raw for a technical transposition of EU law. Prosecutors in Katowice have opened a large‑scale fraud and money‑laundering probe into Zondacrypto, with authorities and local media reporting that losses already exceed 350 million zlotys — roughly $95–97 million at current rates — and that thousands of users have been locked out of their accounts as the platform halted withdrawals. The Regional Prosecutor’s Office has assigned the case to the Central Cybercrime Bureau, with investigators reviewing more than 1,500 complaints and examining whether funds of potentially illicit origin were funneled through the exchange.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has suggested the scandal may extend beyond ordinary financial fraud, telling reporters that “Russian funds” and foreign political influence “may be involved” in the Zondacrypto affair, elevating it from a failed business to a potential national‑security issue. Zondacrypto’s founder, Sylwester Suszek, has been missing since March 2022, while current CEO Przemysław Kral has reportedly left Poland for Israel, further fueling public suspicion. In an earlier interview cited by CryptoRank, Kral claimed Suszek never handed over keys to a wallet holding 4,500 BTC — then worth about $336 million — and that the address was last active in November 2025, leaving a critical hole in the exchange’s balance sheet.
President Karol Nawrocki had twice blocked earlier MiCA‑implementation bills, arguing that sweeping new powers for the KNF and high supervisory fees risked over‑regulation and would “push innovation away” by driving local exchanges offshore. Those vetoes left Polish platforms in limbo, with no domestic path to begin MiCA licensing even as other EU countries moved ahead, but the Zondacrypto fallout shifted the political calculus: as one recent analysis put it, Warsaw is now “reintroducing a tougher crypto‑assets bill after $97M fraud and money‑laundering allegations at exchange Zondacrypto,” and parliament has chosen tighter rules over another delay.
The bill now goes back to Nawrocki’s desk; if he signs it, Poland will finally have a formal licensing regime and enforcement toolkit for crypto‑asset firms under MiCA just as one of its largest exchanges becomes a test case for how far those new powers will be pushed in practice.
