Poland revives tougher crypto regulation bill

TLDR

Poland is reviving a stricter crypto regulation bill aimed at cracking down on fraud and finally aligning with the European Unions MiCA regime.

1. Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to reintroduce a tougher crypto bill with harsher penalties after the Zondacrypto scandal exposed major gaps in oversight.
2. The proposal would bring Poland in line with EU MiCA rules but could significantly increase compliance costs for exchanges and service providers operating in the country.
3. The key variables now are whether parliament can overcome previous vetoes and meet the July 2026 MiCA deadline, and how aggressively enforcement will be applied in practice.

Deep Dive

1. What The Bill Changes

According to a recent summary, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government will reintroduce a crypto regulation bill that was vetoed twice by President Karol Nawrocki, with a new focus on stronger fraud penalties and national security concerns tied to the Zondacrypto case Polish crypto bill overview.

Zondacrypto, one of Polands largest exchanges, is under investigation for alleged large scale fraud and money laundering, with prosecutors citing hundreds of victims and losses estimated in the tens of millions of euros. Polish intelligence has reportedly linked its control to Russian organized crime, and the exchange has admitted losing access to a cold wallet with thousands of BTC.

Poland is also the only EU state that has not yet passed domestic rules to implement MiCA, even though the blocs transitional deadline is 1 July 2026, which raises pressure to get a framework approved.

2. Impact On Polish Crypto

The revived bill is expected to introduce tighter licensing, anti money laundering, and custody standards for crypto exchanges and custodians, so that Poland can fully enforce MiCA on local and foreign platforms serving Polish users.

For businesses, this likely means higher compliance spend, closer scrutiny of ownership and funding sources, and much less tolerance for opaque operations, especially around cold storage and cross border flows. Critics in the opposition have argued that earlier versions of the bill risked overregulation and could hurt innovation or drive activity offshore, so the final balance between consumer protection and flexibility will matter.

3. Key Dates To Watch

The bill still has to clear several steps: passage in both chambers, a possible presidential veto, and any attempt by parliament to override that veto, which previously failed by around 20 votes Polish legislative path.

The EUs MiCA compliance date in mid 2026 is a hard external deadline. If Poland continues to lag, it risks being an outlier in the single market and could face pressure from Brussels, while Polish users may see more geo restrictions from EU based platforms that do not want regulatory ambiguity.

Conclusion

Polands revived crypto bill is best seen as a late but serious attempt to align with EU rules after a high profile exchange scandal exposed how dangerous a regulatory vacuum can be.

For crypto users and companies, the opportunity lies in a clearer, MiCA compatible regime, while the main risk is that overly heavy implementation could shrink local market access or push activity to other jurisdictions.