Polish President Karol Nawrocki has refused to sign Poland’s Crypto-Assets Market Act for the third time, extending a political standoff over how the country should implement the European Uni
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has refused to sign Poland’s Crypto-Assets Market Act for the third time, extending a political standoff over how the country should implement the European Union’s MiCA framework.
The bill, dated May 15, was designed to create Poland’s domestic crypto licensing and supervisory system before the July 1 deadline for local implementation. It would place the crypto-asset market under the supervision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, known as KNF, and define rules for crypto-asset service providers operating in the country.
Nawrocki said he supports regulating the sector and protecting consumers, but argued that the latest text still ignored most of the changes proposed by his office. His position remains that the bill can be signed if it is amended.
The veto keeps Poland in a difficult position. The government says the law is needed to bring the country in line with MiCA, the EU’s common rulebook for crypto-asset issuers and service providers. Nawrocki and his allies argue that Warsaw’s version goes beyond what the EU requires and would damage smaller domestic firms.
The dispute centers on enforcement powers and regulatory weight. The president’s camp has objected to the size of the law, the cost of supervision, broad powers for domain blocking and penalties that critics say could reach levels small firms cannot absorb.
Earlier presidential criticism targeted unclear website-blocking powers, warning that government-controlled domain restrictions could be abused. The president’s office has also argued that Poland’s bill is far longer and more restrictive than the crypto laws adopted in nearby EU countries, creating an incentive for startups to move to markets such as Lithuania, Malta, Czechia or Slovakia.
Penalty levels have also become a political fault line. Competing Polish drafts have differed over maximum fines, with the Finance Ministry-backed approach linked to penalties as high as 25 million zlotys, about $6.9 million, while the president’s preferred version kept lower ceilings for some violations.
For Polish crypto companies, the practical issue is uncertainty. Without a finalized national framework, exchanges, custodians and other crypto-asset service providers face a shrinking window to understand licensing, reporting, supervision, marketing and enforcement rules.
The veto lands during a wider political fight over the collapse and investigation of Zondacrypto, once Poland’s largest crypto exchange. Polish prosecutors have investigated losses estimated at more than 350 million zlotys, about $96 million, after thousands of users were unable to withdraw funds.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tied the case to broader national-security concerns, alleging Russian money and organized-crime links behind the company. Zondacrypto has denied wrongdoing in earlier public responses and said it was cooperating with authorities, while Nawrocki’s office and right-wing lawmakers have rejected claims that opposition to the bill reflects support for illicit crypto activity.
The scandal has turned a technical MiCA implementation bill into a larger political fight over fraud, foreign influence, consumer protection and the future of Poland’s crypto sector. The government wants stronger tools for supervision. The president wants a narrower law with fewer burdens on legitimate firms.
Poland’s delay contrasts with other European markets that have moved faster under MiCA. Exchanges and crypto firms have already been racing to secure EU licenses, with Gemini gaining a MiCA license in Malta and Binance trying to reposition before the EU crypto regulation deadline.
Hungary has been moving in the opposite direction by trying to soften its own strict crypto rules after EU pushback, showing how national crypto laws are now being forced into the same European framework. Poland’s problem is different: the country still lacks the final domestic law needed to make MiCA supervision work locally.
That gap could push Polish companies to seek licensing abroad or delay product launches until the legal position is clearer. It could also leave consumers exposed to a market where EU-level rules exist, but domestic supervision remains politically blocked.
Nawrocki’s third veto now leaves Warsaw with a narrow path. The government can try to amend the bill, attempt another override or keep pushing a text the president has already rejected three times. Poland’s crypto market is left waiting for the same answer it needed months ago: who gets licensed, who supervises the sector and whether the country can meet MiCA without driving local firms out of the market.
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