Polish lawmakers have approved a bill regulating the crypto asset market, introducing key restrictions and establishing a dedicated supervisory authority.
Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, voted in favor of a new Crypto-Asset Market Act last Friday, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration.
Bill 1424, which has yet to reflect the apparent third-reading vote in the Sejm, introduces a licensing regime for crypto asset service providers (CASPs), aligning Poland’s regulations with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework.
The bill’s passage has sparked a strong community response locally over its restrictive provisions, which introduce criminal liability for violations, including fines up to 10 million Polish zlotys ($2.8 million) and prison terms of up to two years.
Key bill provisions
The bill designates the Polish financial supervision authority, the Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), as the primary regulator of the country’s crypto asset market.
Under the legislation, all CASPs — including exchanges, issuers and custody providers, both domestic and foreign — must obtain a license from the KNF to operate in Poland.
To secure a license, CASPs are required to submit a comprehensive application detailing their corporate structure, capital adequacy, internal controls and compliance systems, risk management policies and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures.
If the bill is passed and signed into law, CASPs in Poland will have a six-month transitional period to obtain the required license. Failure to do so could result in cessation of operations and legal consequences.
Bill would “destroy” Poland’s crypto market, critics warn
Receiving 230 votes in favor and 196 against, Poland’s Crypto-Asset Market Act has sparked significant backlash from both the crypto industry and some Polish lawmakers.
Janusz Kowalski, a member of the Sejm from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, criticized Poland’s implementation of the EU’s MiCA regulation, calling it overly restrictive and warning it could jeopardize the country’s crypto market and its three million crypto holders.
“This is the largest and most restrictive cryptocurrency law in the EU,” Kowalski wrote on X after the bill passed its second reading last Wednesday.
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He highlighted the law’s excessive length, describing it as “118 pages of overregulation” compared with much shorter crypto legislation in Germany, the Czech Republic and other EU member states.
“Slowest regulator in the EU”
Tomasz Mentzen, a Polish politician and blockchain advocate, highlighted the challenges of implementing the new crypto legislation amid Poland’s lengthy regulatory procedures.
“The KNF is the slowest-acting regulator in the EU, with an average application processing time of 30 months,” he wrote on X last Wednesday.
According to Mentzen, the Sejm’s approval of the bill — with “yes” votes from members including Krystyna Skowrońska — signals a potential “destruction of blockchain and stablecoins” in Poland.
He urged the Senate and President Karol Nawrocki to step in and veto the legislation to safeguard Poland’s crypto market.
Poland’s president pledged to support crypto
Mentzen’s brother, Sławomir Mentzen, was among the Polish presidential candidates who vowed to create a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve if elected in 2025. In the first round on May 18, 2025, he secured third place with 14.8% of the vote, trailing behind Rafał Trzaskowski and Nawrocki.
In the runoff on June 1, Nawrocki won the presidency with 50.9% of the vote. Days before the election, he pledged to support crypto, standing up against “tyrannical regulations” restricting freedom and innovation.
“In Poland, innovations must emerge, not regulations. As President of the Republic of Poland, I will be the guarantor that tyrannical regulations restricting your freedom do not come into effect,” Nawrocki wrote on X on May 28.
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