Poland parliament again blocks crypto market bill

TLDR

Polands parliament has again failed to overturn the presidents veto of a crypto market bill, leaving the country without a full MiCA-style national regime.

1. Lawmakers fell 25 votes short of the supermajority needed to override President Nawrockis third veto of the Crypto Asset Market Act, keeping his objections in place.
2. The bill would have made the KNF the official crypto supervisor and implemented EU MiCA locally, so firms must keep using other EU hubs to get licenses and banking comfort.
3. The government is already preparing a new draft, but timing and content will depend on how it balances stricter oversight after the Zondacrypto scandal against the presidents overregulation concerns.

Deep Dive

1. What Parliament Blocked Again

Reports from several outlets say the Sejm voted 241 to 198, with three abstentions, to override the veto, missing the three fifths threshold of 266 votes required to force the bill through. This is the third time President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed crypto market legislation, arguing that the government backed draft would overregulate the sector, raise compliance costs and grant broad powers such as website blocking for authorities.

Coverage by Cointelegraph and others notes that the bill, often described as the Crypto Asset Market Act, was explicitly designed to implement the EU Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework in Poland and to put oversight of the crypto market under the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).

2. Consequences For Polish Crypto Firms

Because MiCA already applies at EU level but is enforced by national regulators, Polands failure to designate a crypto supervisor leaves a structural gap. KNF itself has said that no authority currently has clear responsibility for supervising the cryptoasset market under MiCA.

Analyses from Bitcoin.com and Crypto.news highlight that, in practice, Polish crypto businesses that want a MiCA license may need to register in other EU countries that have already implemented the regime and then passport those rights back, adding cost, legal complexity and distance from local users and banks. This also leaves retail users more exposed to unregulated or lightly supervised domestic platforms, since there is no fully empowered national watchdog focused on crypto.

3. Next Steps And Key Risks

Government figures say the Finance Ministry is already working on a fresh crypto bill after the override failure, with more details promised in the coming days. A new proposal will likely need to incorporate more of the presidents 16 suggested changes while still responding to political pressure for tighter oversight.

That pressure is driven by the Zondacrypto collapse, where prosecutors estimate losses of roughly 350 million zlotys and are probing alleged fraud, money laundering and political influence. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has used witness testimony from that case to argue for stricter rules, while the president insists his alternative draft would better target fraud without driving legitimate firms abroad.

Conclusion

Polands repeated failure to move past the presidential veto keeps its crypto sector out of alignment with how most of the EU is implementing MiCA. Until a compromise bill gives KNF or another body clear authority, serious Polish projects are likely to lean on foreign licenses while local users face a patchwork of unsupervised offerings, with the Zondacrypto scandal serving as a live reminder of the risks.