The Polish act on cryptocurrencies is stuck in the Senate amendment procedure. On Wednesday, during the debate in the Senate, senator Kazimierz Kleina submitted further amendments to the bill, which had already been recommended by the Senate committee with 79 changes. Effect? The bill returns to the Budget and Public Finance Committee. A victory for cryptocurrency supporters? None of these things. President Nawrocki’s veto is still the last resort.
Cryptocurrency Act with cardinal errors
The first amendment concerns criminal issues and is funny in its absurdity – the Sejm set penalties for cryptocurrency fraud from 6 months to 5 years in prison, but… forgot to check compliance with the Penal Code. Senator Kleina proposes an adjustment for 1 month to 5 years. Legislative class, no different.
The second amendment is intended to clarify the provisions on currency exchange and e-money activities, so as not to treat them as currency exchange activities. Because in the regulation of cryptocurrencies, the most important are definitional nuances.
MiCA in the Polish edition
The Cryptocurrency Act is intended to implement the EU MiCA regulation by transferring supervision over the cryptocurrency market to the Financial Supervision Authority. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority will be given the right to maintain a register of fraudulent domains and will impose obligations on token issuers and cryptocurrency service providers.
The most serious violations? Fine up to PLN 10 million. Issuing tokens or providing services without reporting to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority will be punished. Online currency exchange offices are also subject to the regulator’s wing – they will have to maintain individual payment accounts for customers.
Will the Cryptocurrency Act be stopped by President Nawrocki’s veto?
According to the Ministry of Finance, 18% of Poles have experience investing in cryptoassets, and about 20% of them have fallen victim to fraud. These numbers (according to legislators) and compliance with MiCA justify the proposed regulations.
Although the current situation may be somewhat optimistic (the bill returns to the Senate committee), such draconian regulations still hang over the entire cryptocurrency industry in Poland. For this reason, the last resort is the veto of President Karol Nawrocki.
It is worth noting that, according to Sławomir Mentzen, he has already met personally with the president to persuade him to veto the bill on cryptocurrencies. The fate of the cryptocurrency industry is unfolding before our eyes. Too brutal and exaggerated? None of these things, because just look at the concerns of native cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.
