Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, has again failed to secure the necessary supermajority to overturn President Karol Nawrocki’s veto on new regulations for the country’s crypto market.
Veto on Crypto Regulation Remains
On Friday, 241 lawmakers voted in favor of overriding the veto, with 198 opposed and three abstaining. The outcome fell short by 25 votes of the 266 required to reach a three-fifths majority, halting for the third time attempts to advance Poland’s proposed crypto market rules.
President Nawrocki, who has vetoed crypto legislation three times, maintains that the current proposals risk excessive regulation. He has stated that while he supports crypto oversight, he is concerned about added regulatory costs and broad powers for authorities, including measures that could block access to certain websites.
The legislation would have established a national framework for implementing the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and placed crypto oversight under the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). However, with the veto remaining in place, the KNF reported Friday that Poland still lacks a designated institution to supervise the cryptoasset sector, despite MiCA already applying throughout the EU.
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Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority warned that the country has not designated any authority to oversee the cryptoasset market, even though MiCA regulations are now in effect across the EU.
Backdrop of Zondacrypto Scandal
The debate over crypto regulation comes as authorities continue to investigate a growing scandal linked to Zondacrypto, a now-defunct crypto exchange. The exchange’s Estonian operator, BB Trade Estonia, was declared bankrupt by an Estonian court in August, with initial creditors’ meetings set for September 17.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has cited the criminal investigation into Zondacrypto to argue for stricter oversight. Ahead of Friday’s vote, Tusk presented excerpts allegedly from a key witness in the case, including claims of payments and attempts to influence politicians connected to Poland’s previous government.
The witness reportedly described a payment of 2 million Polish zloty (approximately $550,000) through a foundation linked to former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. Further testimony cited by Tusk alleged that an individual offered to secure a presidential pardon if the witness faced conviction.
Testimony provided in the Zondacrypto probe included references to arrangements worth millions of zlotys and suggestions of political influence, with ties to officials from the previous government.
Investigators are focusing on suspected fraud and money laundering related to Zondacrypto. In July, prosecutors combined this probe with the 2022 case of Sylwester Suszek’s disappearance, founder of BitBay, which later rebranded as Zondacrypto. Authorities in April estimated that losses linked to Zondacrypto were at least 350 million Polish zlotys ($95 million).
Shift Toward Web3 and Real-World Assets
As Poland’s regulatory struggle continues, the financial sector is experiencing a major transformation with the adoption of Web3 solutions. Institutional and retail investors are increasingly turning to platforms such as 1stepSwap, which allow them to manage shares of prominent U.S. companies, as well as gold and silver, directly within crypto wallets. These platforms use tokenization for real-world assets (RWAs), instantly searching the best market prices and eliminating intermediaries between buyers and sellers.
