Poland weighs rival crypto bills as MiCA rules face delay

Two separate draft laws will be competing to determine the future of Poland’s cryptocurrency market, arguably the largest in Central and Eastern Europe.

The bitter political clash in Warsaw over how to regulate the digital-asset space continues to delay the implementation of EU rules weeks before the deadline.

Polish president files alternative crypto act

President of Poland Karol Nawrocki has put forward his own legislative proposal for regulating crypto transactions in the country.

The draft has been filed with the Sejm, the lower house of Polish parliament, on Wednesday, local media revealed the following day.

The bill submitted by the head of state is meant as an alternative to the law authored by the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Nawrocki’s proposal is based on three main pillars, the Bitcoin.pl portal reported Thursday, citing the Chief of the Chancellery of the President, Zbigniew Bogucki.

These are ensuring protection for consumers and investors, introducing effective state oversight, and securing the rights of entrepreneurs in the industry, he detailed at a press briefing.

Also quoted by Money.pl, the presidential aide stressed that the bill is addressed at all those who are waiting for the regulation of Poland’s crypto market.

The president’s initiative comes after he returned the government-sponsored Crypto-Asset Market Act twice in the past few months.

Attempts of the liberal ruling majority to overturn his vetoes were foiled by his conservatives and nationalist allies in parliament.

Karol Nawrocki’s legislative push comes amid a major political scandal in Poland centered on the collapsed exchange Zondacrypto.

Thousands of customers of the Polish-rooted trading platform, one of the region’s largest, lost access to their funds in early April amid liquidity issues.

Representatives of the Tusk administration blamed the crisis on opposition politicians and the head of state who sabotaged its regulatory effort.

They also alleged that the Estonia-registered crypto company funded conservative political events and figures in Poland, lobbying against their bill.

Tusk now wants harsher penalties for crypto fraud

Meanwhile, the Polish Prime Minister announced on Tuesday that his vetoed draft law will return to the parliament as early as this week.

Little has been amended in the document but it’s significant against the backdrop of the Zonda crash, which may have affected up to 30,000 Poles.

The executive power is now proposing tougher punishment for platforms and persons defrauding cryptocurrency investors. Quoted by Banker.pl on Tuesday, the premier explained:

“The only change I will propose in this project is to make the penalties even more severe for those who, taking advantage of people’s dreams, sometimes their naivety, sometimes their lack of knowledge, deceive them and also put the Polish state and our security at risk.”

The government intends to strengthen the role of Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), which will be able to warn investors in advance, before law enforcement intervenes.

The authors of the legislation were criticized by members of the Polish crypto industry for granting excessive powers to the KNF even before the latest amendments.

Overregulation and excessive burden on small firms were among the motives cited by President Nawrocki when he stopped the legislation.

Its opponents say the government’s act goes far beyond the requirements of Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, which it is supposed to introduce.

Poland must transpose the MiCA standards into national law no later than July 1, 2026. To continue to operate legally, all crypto service providers must be licensed before that date.

However, the president is widely expected to veto the government’s bill again, while his own proposal is also far from securing enough votes in the Sejm.

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