Polish parliament again blocks crypto market law

TLDR

Polands lower house has again failed to override the presidents veto of a key crypto market law, leaving the country without a MiCA style supervisor for digital assets.

1. Lawmakers fell 25 votes short of overturning President Karol Nawrockis veto of the Crypto Asset Market Act, marking the third blocked attempt to pass the law.
2. The bill would have implemented the EUs MiCA framework in Poland and put crypto oversight under the KNF regulator, but its failure keeps firms in regulatory limbo and often pushed abroad.
3. The clash is entangled with the Zondacrypto exchange scandal, and officials are now talking about drafting a new bill, so the main thing to watch is whether a compromise text emerges.

Deep Dive

1. What Parliament Just Blocked

The Sejm, Polands lower house, voted 241 to 198 with three abstentions to override President Nawrockis veto, but needed 266 votes, so the veto stands for the third time in a row. Reports from outlets like Cointelegraph and Bitcoin.com confirm these figures and note that the blocked measure is the Crypto Asset Market Act, a national law meant to anchor Polands crypto rules in line with the EUs Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.

Nawrocki argues the proposal would overregulate the sector, citing concerns over compliance costs and broad powers to block websites, and has consistently used those arguments to justify repeated vetoes.

2. Regulatory Limbo For Polish Crypto

The bill would have formally designated the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) as the crypto market supervisor under MiCA, but KNF has publicly noted that, for now, no authority is officially responsible for supervising the domestic cryptoasset market. As a result, Polish exchanges and service providers that want MiCA style authorization often have to register or license in another EU country and then passport services back into Poland.

For users, this means uneven protection. The Zondacrypto collapse, where prosecutors estimate losses of at least about 350 million zlotys (roughly 95 million dollars), highlighted the risks of operating in a lightly supervised environment, yet the political stalemate has delayed tighter oversight that might address those gaps.

3. Politics, Scandal, And What To Watch

The veto fight is now tightly linked to a widening criminal probe into Zondacrypto, whose Estonian operator has been declared bankrupt, with a first creditors meeting scheduled and investigations into alleged fraud and money laundering continuing. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is using that scandal to push for stronger rules, accusing figures tied to the previous government of shielding the exchange.

According to regional reports, the Finance Ministry has begun preparing a revised draft after the failed override, signaling that lawmakers will try again rather than abandon regulation entirely. The key variables to watch are whether a new bill narrows KNF powers enough to satisfy the president, and how much pressure comes from Brussels for Poland to align with MiCA like other EU states.

Conclusion

Polands repeated failure to enact its crypto market law keeps the country as a MiCA outlier in the EU, even as a major exchange scandal exposes the downside of weak oversight. Until the president and parliament find a compromise that both tightens consumer protection and addresses overregulation fears, Polish crypto businesses will continue to lean on foreign licenses, and users will need to pay close attention to where and how their chosen platforms are regulated.