Poland's Sejm has failed to override President Karol Nawrocki's third veto of a national crypto bill, falling 25 votes short of the required threshold. The defeat leaves the country without a domestic framework implementing the EU's MiCA regulation, while the vote also became a stage for allegations tied to the defunct Zondacrypto exchange.
Poland's lower house fell 25 votes short of overriding President Karol Nawrocki's third veto of a crypto regulation bill on Sept. 4, according to Polish Radio. Of the 442 lawmakers present, 241 voted to override the president, 198 opposed the motion, and three abstained, while Polish law required a three-fifths majority, setting the threshold at 266 votes.
Bill would have handed KNF oversight
The defeated legislation would have designated the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, or KNF, as the country's crypto regulator, and its provisions were designed to support Poland's implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. With the override motion defeated, the latest version cannot advance through the legislative process.
Nawrocki has said he supports rules for the sector but considers the government's version too restrictive. When he rejected the bill on June 11, he said lawmakers had addressed only one of the 16 changes his office had proposed. In a video statement announcing the third veto, Nawrocki said: "Bad law does not become good law simply because it is passed a hundred times."
Three vetoes have prolonged the MiCA dispute
The Sept. 4 defeat follows two earlier 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, and an override bid four days later fell short at 243–192. After Parliament passed another version, Nawrocki issued a second veto on Feb. 12, and a second override attempt failed on April 17 by a vote of 243–191, with three abstentions.
Against that backdrop, the government-backed bill that reached Sept. 4's vote passed the Sejm on May 15 amid an investigation into Zondacrypto. It included licensing and reporting duties for crypto service providers, KNF supervision, and criminal liability for certain violations tied to token issuance and crypto services.
Zondacrypto allegations surface again
Before the vote, Tusk urged lawmakers to override the veto and cited testimony from the Zondacrypto investigation implicating former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. According to the testimony Tusk presented, Ziobro had allegedly promised to stop the Zondacrypto case if he returned to power, with PLN 2 million, worth about €463,000, allegedly intended as "compensation" for him through a foundation established by his brother. The claims form part of an ongoing investigation and have not been presented as court findings. Nawrocki has rejected claims connecting him to the company, saying he never met its chief executive or company representatives and had no information showing the exchange supported his presidential campaign.
MiCA already applies across the EU, but national authorities still handle licensing, supervision and enforcement within the bloc's common framework. The transition period ended July 1, and 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 remains without a domestic license regime of its own.
Source: crypto.news
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