Key Takeaways
- Zondacrypto collapsed in a $94M scandal, prompting PM Tusk to call a re-vote on vetoed crypto rules.
- Repeated presidential vetoes left Poland in regulatory limbo and unable to enforce EU MiCA standards.
- Exchanges cannot register in Poland as Tusk accuses politicians of taking bribes from the failed exchange.
Poland To Revote Crypto-Asset Market Act After Zondacrypto Scandal
Polish authorities are reevaluating the need to have clear regulations to protect citizens from cryptocurrency fraud.
On Friday, during a council of ministers meeting to draft the 2027 budget, Tusk commented on the current situation of the Zondacrypto exchange, which has evolved to become one of the largest crypto-linked corruption cases in the country.
Tusk lamented that the budget preparation was overshadowed by the Zondacrypto bankruptcy and the recent detention of Polish Olympic Committee President Radosław Piesiewicz in a corruption probe.
“This is not some ordinary bribe, some one politician. It looks like a well-organized system in which names known from other situations appear,” Tusk declared, highlighting the gravity of the development.
Tusk said that after this, he would ask the Speaker of the Sejm to organize a re-vote on the Crypto-Asset Market Act, which was vetoed by President Karol Nawrocki a third time on June 11.
“This is probably the moment when no one will have the nerve to say that there is ‘no problem’ or that we have a lot of time. At this point, I can no longer imagine that President Nawrocki, Chairman Kaczyński, and former Prime Minister Morawiecki would reject this problem with such incredible lightness,” Tusk stated.
Tusk has directly pointed his finger at President Nawrocki’s involvement in the Zondacrypto bankruptcy scandal, where affected customers lost up to $94 million, according to estimations.
On social media, he stressed that this was the reason behind the law’s veto, accusing the governing party of receiving “cash for watches worth 40,000 euros, for media, election parties, foundations of right-wing politicians.”
Przemysław Kral, who was the head of Zondacrypto, criticized the act, referring to it as a “major step backwards,” and assuring that the national crypto industry would “suffer” if passed.
The vetoes left Poland in a sort of limbo, without the capacity to administer the Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation provisions. As a consequence, national exchanges are still unable to register in Poland.