Poland’s parliament, the Sejm, has not yet adopted a national law enabling the introduction of EU regulations on cryptocurrencies.
The Parliament once again failed to override the president’s veto on a key bill regulating cryptocurrencies. President Karol Nawrocki defended his veto, citing concerns about excessive regulation that could harm petite businesses. Opponents say the lack of a framework makes the Polish market vulnerable to fraud and open to illegal entities. The political path forward is unclear.
Outside the political arena, the reality is that Poland is the only EU member state to have implemented the bloc’s regulatory framework for cryptocurrency markets (MiCA). The deadline for the transition period is July 1.
This already makes it challenging for local companies to remain competitive in Europe. However, if a solution is not found after July 1, it will be impossible. Some are already taking their business elsewhere and moving abroad.
The cryptographic industry, according to the Polish president, the act is burdensome
In November 2025, the Sejm passed the Cryptocurrency Market Act, which will adapt Polish law to MiCA requirements.
Local business groups were not cheerful with the outcome. In an October letter, the Warsaw Enterprise Institute, a business-focused think tank, outlined several perceived problems with the law.
First there was the length. Including the draft implementing regulations, the total volume was well over 300 pages. Warsaw Institute of Entrepreneurship he said that while other EU member states only needed a few dozen pages, “Polish law has several hundred articles and provides for additional regulations.”
He stated that the act introduces “a ban on marketing activities related to basic cryptocurrencies and the possibility of blocking websites by an administrative decision, without the right to appeal to court.”
“Such solutions are not justified in MiCA and put Polish companies in a worse competitive position compared to entities operating in other EU countries.”
Further concerns were raised about the role that the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) would play in the up-to-date system. Under the law, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority would be the sole regulator of the entire cryptocurrency market. It would have the power to impose hefty fines, as well as maintain and enforce a blacklist of “unreliable” crypto domains, which Polish ISPs would have to block.
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority would not only be incredibly powerful, but also notoriously tardy. According to the review of payment institutions by the European Banking Authority, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority’s authorization times were: the slowest in Europe. In the October magazine of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute he claimed that the Polish Financial Supervision Authority has issued only two licenses for brokerage houses in the last 10 years. In the same period, it issued only one license for electronic money institutions, while Lithuania registered over 100 of them.
Related: EU crypto companies are turning to legal assistance as the deadline to meet MiCA requirements approaches
On December 1, 2025, Nawrocki vetoed the bill, citing bloated regulations. The government failed to override the veto and re-introduced exactly the same bill. In February, Nawrocki vetoed the bill for the second time, and on April 17, the Sejm did not reject the veto again.
The Polish parliament is trying to find a way for MiCA
The battle over the cryptocurrency bill shows no signs of stopping.
Firstly, for Nawrocki, adopting the act after re-introduction in the same form would be a political problem.
Piech told Cointelegraph: “The president has already argued that the law violates constitutional principles and contains excessive, disproportionate and unclear provisions […] “To sign an almost identical version would be to contradict his own reasoning.”
“In that sense, the second push looked less like a compromise and more like an attempt to pressure the president to change the constitution.”
Some in the crypto industry welcomed the veto as Nawrocki stuck to his pro-crypto, no-nonsense regulatory policies.
“A veto is not anti-regulatory, it brings common sense back to the law-making process. […] The industry did not ask for privileges. He called for proportionality,” he said Sławomir Zawadzki, co-CEO of Kanga Exchange.
Various coalitions and groups have tried to introduce their own versions. According to Piech, Finance Minister Andrzej Domański said that yesterday the government started working on solutions to the up-to-date act on cryptocurrencies.
In December, after the first veto, the Polska 2050 political party announced “an improved design that is a step forward from the President’s arguments, which, while far-fetched, may be worth considering.”
Nawrocki himself announced the submission of the project, but the Speaker of the Sejm blocked the introduction of the presidential proposals.
The versions were submitted by the Confederation of Freedom and Independence and Law and Justice, while another political coalition, the Centrum Club, announced the preparation of another project.
Overall, Poland’s political class is “still deeply divided on cryptocurrencies.”
“This is no longer just a technical argument about the implementation of MiCA. It has become a broader fight about whether cryptocurrencies should be brought into the normal legal framework or treated as a politically suspect sector that could be over-regulated, stigmatized or used as a proxy battleground after the Zonda Crypto controversy,” he said.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, himself a member of the Civic Coalition, did so accused local exchange Zonda Crypto regarding illegal financing and connections with Russian criminal networks. He went through a financial crisis, withholding payments, and reportedly lobbied against the bill.
Related: The Zonda exchange claims that the portfolio is 4.5 thousand. BTC is unavailable due to withdrawal crisis
Tusk also claimed that he “sponsors political and social events in Poland and promotes very specific political forces,” including the opposition far-right Law and Justice party, of which Nawrocki is a member.
Zonda Crypto did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Polish cryptocurrency companies are looking abroad
For companies in Poland, the adoption of a up-to-date law by the end of the MiCA transition period on July 1 could mean closing the barn door after the horses have escaped.
Said Piech: “The new law may still have institutional significance, especially for banks and larger financial institutions that may want to enter the cryptocurrency market as soon as there is a clear legal path. However, it is already very late for all existing Polish cryptocurrency companies.”
Some domestic crypto companies are already looking abroad. Cryptocurrency exchange Kanga is considering moving to Latvia, “a country whose representatives openly used conferences in Poland to attract crypto companies by offering a MiCA-friendly system, faster procedures and relatively low supervisory fees,” Piech claims.
Robert Wojciechowski, president of the National Chamber of Commerce for Blockchain and New Technologies, he said“Since the founding of the chamber, about 70-80 percent of companies have gone abroad. Now my colleagues say they are talking to the Czech Republic to move their operations there.”
The Chancellery of the President has itself lifted up raised the alarm, stating that “Overregulation is a guaranteed way to push companies abroad – to the Czech Republic, Lithuania or Malta – instead of creating conditions for them to operate and pay taxes in Poland.”
Zonda Crypto CEO Przemysław Kral previously told Cointelegraph: “Although we are a company with Polish roots and the largest player in the cryptocurrency industry on the Polish market, we have been operating outside Poland for years.”
“We are convinced that we will remain a key player on the market. However, many small Polish cryptocurrency companies will lose the opportunity to operate on the market,” he said.
Now it’s a race against time as July 1st approaches. Piech does not see “realistic chances” for the bill to be adopted, and if this does not happen, “domestic companies without a functioning Polish route will find themselves in a structurally disadvantaged situation.”
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