Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a cryptocurrency regulatory bill for the third time, which sought to implement Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the country.
Nawrocki said Thursday he supports regulating the cryptocurrency market but argued that the government incorporated only one of 16 key amendments proposed by his office. He said that the text was nearly identical to the previous two drafts he refused.
The third veto of the bill delays Poland’s alignment with the EU-wide regulatory framework just weeks before the end of MiCA’s transitional period on July 1. Following the end of the grace period, crypto asset service providers will be required to hold a MiCA license or stop servicing EU clients.
Poland is currently the only EU member state without a domestic MiCA implementation. Following the July 1 deadline, Poland-based crypto asset service providers without a MiCA license may lose the legal basis to serve EU customers.
Related: MiCA architect says EU should prioritize tokenization over DeFi rules
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk slammed the veto in a Thursday X post, writing: “It sounds unbelievable, but the president has vetoed the cryptocurrency bill again. He seems more entangled in it than everyone thought.”
Source: Donald Tusk
Zonda probe adds pressure on Poland’s crypto sector
The veto comes as scrutiny of Poland’s crypto sector intensifies. Prosecutors are reportedly investigating one of the country’s largest crypto exchanges, Zonda, for suspected fraud and money laundering involving 2,000 customers with alleged links to Russian organized crime.
The investigation followed a report by blockchain platform Recoveris, which alleged that Zonda may have been insolvent based on a sharp decline in the exchange’s hot wallet balances.
Earlier in April, Zonda CEO Przemysław Kral claimed that one of the exchange’s cold wallets holding around 4,500 Bitcoin (BTC) was inaccessible, saying the private keys were intended to be handed over by Zonda founder and former CEO Sylwester Suszek, who has been missing since 2022.
Kral has denied accusations of misappropriating funds.
“So for all those who claim that I had anything to do with Sylwester’s disappearance, this is the prime argument that I care the most about Sylwester being found,” Kral said.
Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
