Poland’s parliament failed for the third time on Thursday to override President Karol Nawrocki’s veto of a crypto regulation bill, leaving the country without a framework to implement the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules.
The Sejm voted 241-198 to overturn the veto, falling 25 votes short of the 266 needed for a three-fifths majority under Poland’s constitution. Three lawmakers abstained from the vote. The bill, known as the Crypto-Asset Market Act, would have designated Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) as the country’s crypto regulator.
Nawrocki vetoed the legislation for the third time last month. He has said he supports crypto regulation in principle but considers the government’s version too restrictive. When he first rejected it in December 2025, his office said lawmakers had addressed only one of 16 proposed changes. Parliament resubmitted the same bill each time without incorporating the president’s feedback into the revised text.
What the bill would have done
The Crypto-Asset Market Act was designed to bring Poland in line with MiCA, the EU-wide regulatory framework that governs crypto exchanges, custody providers, and token issuers across the bloc. Under the bill, all crypto service providers operating in Poland would have needed to obtain CASP (Crypto-Asset Service Provider) licenses from the KNF.
The legislation would also have given the KNF power to suspend or revoke licenses, require capital adequacy standards, and impose reporting obligations on exchanges. It included provisions for stablecoin reserve requirements and consumer protection rules aligned with MiCA’s Titles II through VI.
Poland is one of the last EU member states without a designated national crypto regulator, putting it at odds with the MiCA compliance deadline that passed in June 2025. France, Germany, Lithuania, and Estonia all completed their national implementations ahead of schedule.
Industry groups expressed frustration at the repeated deadlocks. Jakub Czajka of the Polish Blockchain Association told Polish Radio that the president’s blanket veto approach “does real damage” to the sector.
“Every month without clear rules pushes more Polish crypto companies to register in Lithuania, Estonia, or the Netherlands,” Czajka said. “Those countries collect the tax revenue and the jobs. Poland gets nothing.”
Marcin Zlocisty, a tax partner at EY Poland, said the regulatory vacuum creates uncertainty for both businesses and individual investors. “Companies cannot plan long-term without knowing which authority will supervise them or what the licensing requirements will look like,” Zlocisty said.
The timeline problem
The failed override leaves Poland in a bind. EU member states were supposed to have MiCA-compatible national frameworks in place by June 2025. Most countries met the deadline or came close. Poland is now more than a year behind its European peers on this front.
The next opportunity for parliament to act comes when the Sejm reconvenes in mid-September. But passing the bill again would require the same three-fifths supermajority that failed three times. With opposition lawmakers largely aligned against the current version, the math looks difficult.
Some lawmakers have floated the idea of drafting a completely new bill that incorporates more of Nawrocki’s proposed changes. That approach could win the president’s signature, but it would take weeks of committee work and floor debate. The government has so far declined to pursue that route, arguing the existing bill is already a reasonable compromise.
Meanwhile, Polish crypto exchanges continue to operate under a patchwork of existing financial regulations. The KNF has issued guidance letters but lacks the statutory authority to license or discipline crypto-specific firms. Exchanges registered in Poland can operate legally under general payment services rules, but they face a different regulatory standard than their MiCA-licensed competitors elsewhere in the EU.
What is at stake
Poland’s crypto industry is not small. Chainalysis ranked the country among the top 20 global markets for crypto adoption in its 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency report. Warsaw alone hosts dozens of crypto startups and several mid-sized exchanges that serve clients across Central Europe.
The regulatory limbo also affects institutional adoption. Several Polish banks had been exploring crypto custody services ahead of the bill’s expected passage. PKO Bank Polski and mBank both signaled interest in offering digital asset custody to institutional clients. Without clear rules, those plans remain on hold indefinitely.
There is also a competitive dimension. Lithuania, which completed its MiCA implementation early, has become a hub for crypto companies seeking EU passports. The country issued over 100 CASP licenses in the first six months of MiCA enforcement. Poland, with a larger economy and a bigger domestic crypto market, has issued zero.
The broader European context adds pressure. The European Commission has warned member states that delayed MiCA implementation could result in enforcement actions and fines. While the commission has focused its public messaging on countries like Belgium and Italy, which also lag, Poland’s situation is more visible because of the repeated political drama playing out in parliament for months on end.
The political dynamic makes resolution unlikely before year-end. Nawrocki’s office has signaled openness to a revised bill but has not specified what changes would satisfy him. The governing coalition lacks the votes to override and appears unwilling to rewrite the legislation from scratch at this point.
For Polish crypto users and businesses, the message is clear: the regulatory wait continues. Until the standoff between parliament and the president resolves, the country will remain an outlier in the EU’s crypto landscape, a large market with no clear rules of the game.
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