Poland’s lower house of parliament, the Sejm, failed on Sept. 4 to override President Karol Nawrocki’s third veto of a cryptocurrency regulation bill, falling 25 votes short of the required threshold. Of the 442 lawmakers present, 241 voted to override the president, 198 opposed the motion, and three abstained. Polish law required a three-fifths majority, or 266 votes, to force the president to sign the legislation.
The bill would have placed Poland’s domestic crypto market under the supervision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, known as the KNF, and was intended to support Poland’s implementation of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. Nawrocki has said he supports crypto rules but considers the government’s version too restrictive and likely to push businesses to other jurisdictions. In a video statement announcing the third veto, he said: “Bad law does not become good law simply because it is passed a hundred times.”
The latest defeat follows two previous attempts by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government to pass a domestic framework. Nawrocki rejected the first Crypto-Asset Market Act on Dec. 1, 2025, objecting to the KNF’s proposed authority to block crypto-related websites and to compliance costs for companies. A first override attempt on Dec. 5 failed with 243 votes in favor to 192 against. After parliament passed another version, Nawrocki issued a second veto on Feb. 12, arguing it was almost identical to the original legislation. A second override attempt failed on April 17, also with 243–191 and three abstentions.
By May, the Sejm was weighing competing proposals from the government, the president’s office, Poland 2050, and the Confederation party. The government-backed legislation passed the Sejm on May 15, including licensing and reporting duties for crypto service providers, KNF supervision, and criminal liability for certain violations connected with token issuance and crypto services. Nawrocki submitted a separate proposal that his office said would offer stronger safeguards against fraud and financial crime without imposing the same costs on legitimate companies, but he said parliament had not supported his version.
The political fight has been shaped by allegations involving the defunct Zondacrypto exchange. Before the Sept. 4 vote, Tusk read parts of witness testimony that implicated former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. The testimony alleged that PLN 2 million, about €463,000, was intended as compensation for Ziobro and would pass through a foundation established by his brother, with PLN 500,000, roughly €116,000, allegedly assigned to Ziobro’s personal expenses. Tusk accused opposition Law and Justice party members of supporting people involved in questionable crypto dealings, saying: “You are disgracing yourselves.” The claims cited in parliament have not been presented as court findings. Nawrocki has rejected claims connecting him to Zondacrypto, saying he never met the exchange’s CEO or representatives.
MiCA already applies across the EU, but national authorities still handle licensing, supervision, and enforcement. The EU transition period ended on July 1, leaving firms without authorization facing service restrictions or an orderly wind-down. An ESMA register cited in June showed 244 crypto service provider licenses had been issued shortly before the deadline, with Germany and France accounting for more than one-third of them. Poland’s deadlock means its domestic enforcement framework remains unresolved even as the bloc-wide regime moves forward.
