Poland: Parliament Fails to Overturn Veto on Crypto Law

The Polish parliament failed on Friday, September 5, to overturn the third presidential veto against the crypto-assets market law. The Sejm gathered only 241 votes out of the 266 required, despite pressure from Prime Minister Donald Tusk amid the Zondacrypto scandal, an exchange accused of embezzling $94 million in client funds.

In Brief

• The Sejm stopped at 241 votes, against the 266 required by the Constitution.
• Due to the lack of national legislation, Poland is the only member state where no MiCA licenses can be issued.
• The investigation into Zondacrypto dominated the debates, without changing the votes.

Constitutional Threshold Missed Again

The vote on September 5 in the Sejm constituted the third attempt to overturn the presidential veto on the Crypto-Asset Market Act. President Karol Nawrocki had already rejected this text in December 2025, February 2026, and then June 2026. Each time, he cited the risks that the law would pose to the economic freedom of Poles.

Donald Tusk had pushed for the urgent inclusion of the topic on the Sejm's agenda the previous week. The debate was limited. The vote resulted in 241 favorable votes, which is 25 less than the three-fifths qualified majority required by the Constitution.

Why is this law attracting so much attention? Without it, the Polish financial authority (KNF) has no legal basis to issue licenses for crypto-asset service providers (CASP) at the national level.

A License Impossible to Apply for at Home

MiCA applies directly throughout the Union, but each country must designate a competent authority to process applications. Article 143(3) of the regulation granted actors already registered at the national level until July 1, 2026, to comply.

This deadline has passed. In its note on the absence of a competent authority, the UKNF confirms it: without authorization, a Polish company can no longer provide these services. However, nothing prevents a platform licensed elsewhere in the Union from serving clients in Poland through the European passport.

Thus, two options remain for operators in Warsaw. Seek approval in another member state or cease regulated services. The transition to the post-MiCA phase already showed that few have waited.

The Zondacrypto Case Changes the Nature of the Debate

The vote occurred as the prosecutor's office estimates that at least $94 million in client funds have been lost, an amount reported by Bitcoin.com News. The head of the platform, Przemysław Kral, left Poland in April; the press places him in Israel, of which he holds nationality, making extradition unlikely. The Tallinn court declared BB Trade Estonia, the company operating the platform, bankrupt on August 27.

For Polskie Radio, Donald Tusk brought these elements to the table before the vote and directly targeted the presidential camp, accused of paving the way for Zondacrypto to the highest levels of the state.

In summary, the next episode will play out on the same threshold: 266 votes. In the meantime, approval requests are going abroad, and the Polish text aligned with MiCA remains a dead letter.