WARSAW, May 15 (Reuters) – Polish lawmakers adopted a bill on Friday regulating cryptocurrencies, as a scandal involving the collapse of the country’s biggest exchange deepened and amid a row over how much to supervise the growing sector.
The bill implements the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which Poland must approve by July.
Polish prosecutors have launched a multi-million dollar fraud probe into the Zondacrypto exchange, amid allegations – including from Prime Minister Donald Tusk – of malign Russian influence, intensifying calls for action on regulation.
Thousands of users of the Zondacrypto exchange have been unable to withdraw their funds. Prosecutors put their total losses at more than 350 million zlotys ($95.93 million).
The government has said the implications are much wider, with Tusk suggesting there is Russian money behind the firm and that its previous sponsorship of events attended by figures from Poland’s nationalist opposition raises questions over foreign political interference.
Zondacrypto did not respond to a request for comment emailed on Thursday.
The firm’s founder, Sylwester Suszek, disappeared in 2022, and Polish media have reported that his successor, Przemyslaw Kral, is now in Israel, where he holds citizenship, complicating extradition.
Reuters was unable to reach Suszek or Kral for comment.
‘RUSSIAN MAFIA’ MONEY?
“We were dealing with a company whose origins are particularly shady,” Tusk told a government meeting earlier this month, citing Polish security services.
“It’s the Russian mafia and its money involved in organising the Zondacrypto exchange,” he said, without elaborating.
Warsaw has said Russia uses cryptocurrencies to pay saboteurs in Poland. Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for sabotage in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.
The government has already tried twice to pass legislation implementing the EU rules, but it was vetoed by President Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by Poland’s nationalist opposition.
Nawrocki had argued the government bill would drive crypto firms away due to excessive burdens. He submitted his own bill to parliament, which was broadly similar to the government’s but proposed lower penalties for violations.
The president could also block this latest legislation. Polish entities will lose the ability to provide crypto-asset services if the country does not implement the rules by July, Poland’s financial watchdog has said.
($1 = 3.6486 zlotys)
(Reporting by Anna Koper, Alan Charlish and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk;Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Gareth Jones)
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