In Poland, every sales of cryptocurrencies with profit means the need to pay a beam tax, i.e. on capital gains. Our southern neighbors, however, decided to attract Hodlers and changed the law. At the same time, the president of the National Bank of Poland revealed whether our central bank would invest in Bitcoin. It is worth combining the attitudes of the authorities of both countries and answer the question which strategy is smarter.
The Czech Republic like Hodlers
The Czech Republic wants to invite BTC Hodlers: If you are a taxpayer in this country and keep cryptocurrencies for over three years, you will not pay tax. This is certain, because President Petr Pavel has just signed the relevant law. The new regulations will come into force in mid -2025.
Importantly, the reform is part of other legislation regarding shares and other securities. In general, the Czech government has adopted a strategy for bringing Hodlers to the country and inclining investors to invest long -term.
In the Czech Republic, there is generally increased interest in Bitcoin. For example, the Czech National Bank recently analyzed the application to add Bitcoin to its reserves. The institution was to invest 5% of its reserves in the cryptocurrency. “For” is the president of the Central Bank himself, Aleš Michl. Interestingly, his public declaration of support for the idea of adding BTC to the Czech reserves met with a sharp response of the European Central Bank. The head of the latter institution Christine Lagarde said that Bitcoin was a risky value and suggested that investing in it by central banks should not take place.
In our southern neighbor, therefore, we have such a situation: the government and the president encourage you to invest long -term in BTC, while in the central bank there is a discussion about adding cryptocurrency to the reserve.
Before I go to what took place in our country at that time, I will give the voice of Graca Chen, CEO of Bitget, which specially commented on what is happening in the Czech Republic:
The Czech decision to exempt from tax profits from long -term owners (BTC) is a key step to increasing the use of Bitcoin in the region and outside the European Union. This policy encourages long -term investing, promoting a more stable strategy “Buy and store”, while alleviating short -term instability. What’s more, if the Czech central bank implements the planned allocation of 5% of its reserves in the amount of EUR 140 billion in Bitcoin – what (today) corresponds to about 75,000 BTC – this country may become the third largest country with Bitcoin, overtaking Great Britain, Germany and Ukraine. While the European Central Bank opposes such initiatives, the Czech independent monetary policy allows them to act outside the ECB restrictions. If this method succeeds, it can pave the way for other European countries to re -consider their position on Bitcoin, potentially encouraging to wider institutional use in the entire region.
Why should the central bank have BTC?
Just why should central banks invest in Bitcoin? Let’s replace some reasons:
Diversification of foreign currency reserves
Central banks traditionally store reserves in American dollars, euros, gold and bonds. Bitcoin, as an independent act, could be an additional element of diversification, especially in times of geopolitical uncertainty and inflation.
Inflation protection
Bitcoin has a limited supply (maximum 21 million coins), which makes it resistant to inflationary activities of central banks. Therefore, it can be used as “digital gold” and securing the value of reserves.
Possibility to increase the value
Bitcoin has an upward trend in the long run, which means that central banks could get profits from the increase in value, strengthening their balance sheets.
In all this, however, it should be added that investing central banks in Bitcoin is also associated with risk, such as BTC prices variability or issues related to transaction anonymity. Not to mention how to safely store cryptocurrencies. For now, most central banks remain skeptical in this matter.
Poland is “no”
Now let’s get to Poland. This is because at a time when the Czechs are opening to Bitcoin, Polish elites do something different. President of the National Bank of Poland Adam Glapiński. He reported during a press conference that under no circumstances would he agree to the investment in BTC. By the way, we all learned that talks about creating cryptoonser are conducted at the level of heads of central banks:
The president of the Czech bank (…) remembered me (…) that he has such an idea … Well original. First of all, I will answer that not. The National Bank of Poland, in no case, because we think that reserves must be absolutely safe.
He added that “Bitcoins can be talked about a lot, but they are not a permanent, safe element of reserves.” But where did his fears come from? He admitted that the reason for the fear of Bitcoin in this context is geopolitics.
We are on such a place on the map that we want to gather the most certain (assets). We collect in gold, in dollars and in euro, as well as marginally different elements. So very safe
He spoke.
Simply put: Glapiński is afraid of the Polish war with Russia and hence his reluctance to add assets to reserves that may lose its value at the time of political turmoil.
Who is right?
So we have a very interesting situation: two neighboring countries, from the same region, thus treated by large capital in a similar way approach cryptocurrencies in a completely different way. The Czech Republic wants to encourage long -term investing, in Poland the chances of passing the relevant law are negligible. Belka’s tax could not even be reformed (leaving it, but in another form that is more favorable to investors).
Being objective, however, you also have to agree with Glapiński: In the event of a war, a violent drops may begin in the Bitcoin chart, so cryptocurrency will not help in defending the zloty. Gold will be more useful in this field. The NBP plays the worst possible scenario: serious destabilization in the region. Rightly? I don’t know that, because I don’t know what is happening at the peaks of power. However, there are fears that a decision will be made in the USA to focus on the Pacific and China. At the expense of Europe, I will add, which may mean a deadly threat to us.
On the other hand, the “small” NBP investment in BTC would not be a great threat. Speech, for example, about changing 1-2% of cryptocurrency reserves. It would be a risk worth the price.
The government’s reluctance to introduce regulations for the Hodlers remains a separate issue. This is all the stranger because the total revenues from the beam tax are not large (of course in the context of revenues to the state budget). In 2023, they amounted to just over PLN 9 billion (budget revenues are PLN 600-700 billion).
Summary
Poland is still maintaining a conservative position – the president of the NBP rejects Bitcoin as a reserve act, and the government does not want to change cryptocurrency taxation.
However, both strategies – Poland and the Czech Republic – have their justification. The Czech Republic risk, but they can attract investors and strengthen their position as a financial center of the region. Poland is guided by security and stability, which makes sense in a geopolitical context. Only that the complete rejection of Bitcoin can be short -sighted, especially if cryptocurrencies play a greater role in the global financial system. Perhaps the optimal solution would be to gradually open to BTC, but with caution.
You can buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in a simple and safe way on the Zondacrypto stock exchange.
