Another approach to crypto-actives
The bill without amendments was supported by 57 senators, against 26, and no 1 abstained. Now it will go to president Karol Nawrocki, who has already vetoed akin solutions twice. During the parliamentary work, the government's draft Act on the crypto-activism marketplace was considered to be the main one, and so no another proposals, including those submitted by the President, Poland 2050 and the Confederation, were continued.
This is the 3rd effort to regulate the crypto-active market. 2 erstwhile government initiatives were vetoed by the President, who justified his decision with an excessive level of regulation and the hazard of moving Polish companies from the manufacture abroad.
The current government takes account of 1 amendment tabled by the President's Chancellery, which assumes that the Financial Supervision Commission, in cooperation with the Minister of Finance, will prepare and print annually in the Public Information Bulletin a study on the functioning of the crypto-active market.
The President's another proposals were not supported, including the introduction of additional judicial review of the supervisory activities of the KNF, the shortening of the maximum period of blocking the account or the suspension of transactions from six to 3 months and the establishment of additional liability of the State Treasury for damages resulting from illegal blocking of the account.
Main assumptions
The law adopted by the Sejm last Friday aims to implement the EU MiCA Regulation, which regulates the crypto-activism market. According to its records, the supervision of this area is to be exercised by the Financial Supervision Commission, with powers to temporarily block accounts – both cash and crypto-activities – and to suspend transactions for 96 hours, with the anticipation of extending this period to a maximum of six months.
The rules besides supply for the introduction of fees to KNF for supervision – up to 0.5% for token issuers and up to 0.4% for crypto-active service providers. The Commission will besides be given the chance to impose financial sanctions on operators offering and emitting cryptactivities, as well as on professional intermediaries for specified transactions.
In the event of violations of the KNF, it will be able to enter unfair net domains in a peculiar register, and the Act besides provides for criminal liability for activities specified as the issue of tokens or the provision of services without prior notification of activities for supervision.
The Financial Supervision Commission drew attention to EU rules allowing the provision of cryptoactive services without authorisation until 1 July 2026. At the same time, it was stressed that the failure to designate a national supervisory authority in the applicable regulations may lead to a situation where Polish entities lose their ability to carry out specified activities, leaving the marketplace exclusively to companies operating across borders on the basis of permits obtained in another European Union countries.
Five projects with the same
It is worth noting that 5 cryptoactive projects were considered in the Sejm, 3 of which were based on a government proposal. These included, among others, the 3rd draft of the government after 2 vetoes of the President, as well as the proposals of Poland 2050 and the president himself, who, despite erstwhile criticism, proposed a akin extended solution. In addition, a simplified Confederacy task and a restrictive PiS task to ban cryptocurrency trading were conducted.
W The legislature of presidential amendments were tabled as its own PiS Senators, proposing, among others, lower fees and the extension of supervisory powers, but they did not gain the support of the Ministry of Finance. Minister Andrzej Domanski estimated that the version of the bill adopted by the Sejm was very good.
