President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the Crypto-Asset Market Act on 1 December, leaving Poland as the only EU member state without a domestic implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. On 5 December, parliament fell 18 votes short of the three-fifths majority required to override the veto.
Nawrocki argued the bill threatened civil liberties by granting the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) the power to block crypto-related websites with minimal oversight. Poland's draft ran over 100 pages, compared to just 12 in the Czech Republic's implementation. The crypto industry was divided: Zondacrypto CEO Przemysław Kral called the bill a regime of excessive restrictions, citing fines of up to 10 million zlotys and the risk of criminalising legitimate activities, while Finance Minister Domański branded the veto as chaos, warning that one in five Polish crypto investors has already lost money to scams. Chainalysis data ranks Poland eighth in Europe for crypto value received, with transaction volumes rising over 50% year-on-year and an estimated 7.9 million crypto users. Germany, Malta, the Netherlands, and Lithuania have already begun issuing MiCA licences — with the Netherlands and Malta granting their first on 30 December 2024, the day MiCA took full effect — and more than 40 CASP licences have been issued across the EU to date.
If Poland fails to designate a regulatory authority before July 2026 — the deadline for EU-wide MiCA enforcement — crypto firms may be forced to register in other member states, potentially diverting tax revenues abroad, while lawmakers must restart the entire legislative process from scratch.
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