Regulatory Gridlock in Poland Pushes Cryptocurrency Firms to Relocate Overseas
A legislative impasse in Poland's parliament regarding cryptocurrency regulation and the country's failure to harmonize domestic legislation with MiCA threatens to push numerous local crypto businesses to foreign jurisdictions.
The Sejm, Poland's legislative body, has not yet approved domestic implementing legislation for the European Union's cryptocurrency regulations.
The legislative body has once more been unable to overturn a veto by the president on crucial crypto regulatory legislation. President Karol Nawrocki stood by his decision to veto the bill, expressing worries about overregulation that could negatively impact smaller enterprises. Critics of the veto argue that the absence of a regulatory framework leaves Poland's market exposed to fraudulent activities and creates an environment conducive to bad actors. There is no clear direction for how to proceed politically.
Beyond the political debate, the situation is that Poland stands as the sole remaining member state of the EU that has not enacted the bloc's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework. The transitionary deadline expires on July 1.
This situation is already creating challenges for domestic companies trying to remain competitive within Europe. However, following the July 1 deadline, without a resolution, maintaining competitiveness will become virtually impossible. A number of firms have already begun relocating their operations to other countries.
Polish president and crypto sector describe legislation as overly restrictive
During November 2025, the Sejm approved the Crypto-Asset Market Act, designed to bring Polish legislation into alignment with MiCA requirements.
Business organizations within Poland expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome. The Warsaw Enterprise Institute, a think tank focused on business matters, detailed several concerns about the proposed law in an October correspondence.
The first issue was its excessive length. When including draft secondary regulations, the complete text exceeded 300 pages. The Warsaw Enterprise Institute observed that other EU member states managed with merely several dozen pages, yet "the Polish law has several hundred articles and provides for additional regulations."
According to the institute, the legislation establishes "a ban on marketing activities related to basic cryptocurrencies and the possibility of blocking websites by administrative decision, without the right to appeal to a court."
Such solutions are not justified by MiCA and put Polish companies in a worse competitive position compared to entities operating in other EU countries.
Another significant concern centered on the authority that would be granted to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) under the proposed regulatory framework. The legislation would designate the KNF as the exclusive regulatory body for the complete crypto marketplace. The organization would possess authority to impose substantial fines and to create and enforce a blacklist of "unreliable" cryptocurrency domains that Internet service providers in Poland would be required to block.
The KNF would not only wield considerable power but also has an established reputation for bureaucratic slowness. Data from a payment institution peer review conducted by the European Banking Authority shows that the KNF's authorization processing times were the most prolonged across Europe. The Warsaw Enterprise Institute stated in an October correspondence that the KNF has granted merely two licenses for brokerage houses over the past decade. During this identical timeframe, it has approved only a single electronic money institution license, whereas Lithuania has registered in excess of 100.
Nawrocki vetoed the legislation on Dec. 1, 2025, pointing to excessive regulatory burden. The government's attempt to override the veto was unsuccessful, following which they resubmitted an identical bill. Nawrocki issued a second veto in February, and the Sejm again failed to overturn the veto on April 17.
Poland's legislative body encounters difficulties in charting a course for MiCA implementation
The conflict surrounding the cryptocurrency legislation appears to have no imminent resolution.
For Nawrocki, approving the bill in its resubmitted form without modifications would have created a political dilemma.
Piech explained to Cointelegraph, "Once the president had already argued that the bill breached constitutional principles and contained excessive, disproportionate and vague provisions [...] signing a near-identical version would have meant contradicting his own stated reasoning."
In that sense, the second push looked less like compromise and more like an attempt to pressure the president into a constitutional U-turn.
Segments of the cryptocurrency sector praised the veto, viewing it as Nawrocki upholding his pro-cryptocurrency stance and commitment to sensible regulation.
Sławomir Zawadzki, co-CEO of Kanga Exchange, stated, "The veto is not anti-regulatory, it brings common sense back into the law-making process. [...] The industry did not ask for privileges. It asked for proportionality."
Various coalitions and political groups have made attempts to put forward their own alternative versions. Piech noted that Finance Minister Andrzej Domański announced the government began working yesterday on developing solutions for a new crypto-asset bill.
Following the initial veto in December, the Polska 2050 political party unveiled "an improved draft that is a step forward from the President's arguments, which, although far-fetched, are perhaps worth considering."
Nawrocki himself indicated he would present a draft, however the speaker within the Sejm has prevented the introduction of presidential proposals.
Both the Confederation of Liberty and Independence and the Law and Justice parties have submitted their own versions, and another political coalition, the Center Club, declared its intention to develop yet another draft.
In general, Poland's political establishment remains "still deeply split on crypto."
This is no longer just a technical argument about implementing MiCA. It has become a broader fight over whether crypto should be brought into a normal legal framework, or treated as a politically suspicious sector that can be overregulated, stigmatised or used as a proxy battlefield after the Zonda Crypto controversy.
Donald Tusk, Poland's Prime Minister and a member of the Civic Coalition, has made accusations against domestic exchange Zonda Crypto regarding illicit funding and connections to Russian criminal networks. The exchange has experienced a funding crisis, halting withdrawals, and has allegedly engaged in lobbying efforts against the legislation.
Tusk has additionally alleged that the exchange "sponsors political and social events in Poland and promotes very specific political forces," naming the opposition far-right Law and Justice party, to which Nawrocki belongs.
Zonda Crypto did not respond to Cointelegraph's request for comment.
Cryptocurrency businesses in Poland explore foreign alternatives
For Polish companies operating in the crypto space, the passage of new legislation before the conclusion of the MiCA transitional period on July 1 may represent a scenario of shutting the barn doors after the horses have bolted.
Piech commented, "A new law may still matter institutionally, especially for banks and larger financial institutions that may want to enter crypto once there is a clear legal path. But for all existing Polish crypto firms, it is already very late."
Several domestic cryptocurrency businesses are already exploring opportunities abroad. The crypto exchange Kanga is contemplating relocation to Latvia, "a country whose representatives have openly used conferences in Poland to attract crypto firms, offering a MiCA-friendly regime, faster procedures and relatively low supervisory fees," according to Piech.
Robert Wojciechowski, president of the Polish Chamber of Commerce for Blockchain and New Technologies, remarked, "Since we founded the chamber, about 70-80 percent of companies have sailed abroad. Now my colleagues say they are talking to the Czech Republic to move their business there."
The Chancellery of the President has also sounded an alarm, declaring 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."
Przemysław Kral, CEO of Zonda Crypto, previously stated to Cointelegraph, "Although we are a company with Polish roots and the largest player in the crypto industry on the Polish market, we have been operating outside Poland for years."
We are confident that we will remain a key player on the market. However, many small Polish crypto companies will lose the opportunity to operate on the market.
Time is running out as the July 1 deadline approaches rapidly. Piech does not foresee a "realistic chance" for legislation to be enacted, and without it, "domestic firms without a functioning Polish route are left at a structural disadvantage."