Poland admits one in five of Poles have invested in crypto during Bitcoin bill debate

Some 18% of Polish citizens have already put money into crypto assets, according to Warsaw’s own estimates made public during a parliamentary debate on Poland’s upcoming cryptocurrency regulations.

Members of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament in Poland, are considering a government-sponsored piece of legislation meant to regulate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the country and the economy built around the digital assets.

Bill No. 1424 was filed on June 26 and submitted for first reading in the chamber on July 7, the Polish crypto news outlet Bitcoin.pl reported Wednesday. On July 22, deputies launched the long-awaited debate on the proposed regulations, joined by representatives of the executive power in Warsaw.

Fifth of Poles already invested in cryptocurrencies, government says

Addressing lawmakers from the ruling majority and the opposition, Deputy Finance Minister Jurand Drop defended the cabinet’s motion, stressing that the Central European nation is yet to adopt rules providing protection for crypto investors.

“20% of investors in this market declare that they have fallen victim to some kind of fraud or abuse,” the government official pointed out, while also emphasizing:

“In Poland, 18% of people already have experience investing in crypto assets. These regulations are crucial for strengthening investor and customer protection in the crypto asset market.”

Polish crypto sector fears bill may spark exodus of businesses

The new legislation, aimed at transposing the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation into national law, has been the cause of deep concerns among the members of the local crypto community.

A worrying move for them is the decision to entrust oversight to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), “which is notorious for its less-than-favorable attitude toward cryptocurrencies,” as Bitcoin.pl remarked in its article.

Another controversial moment has been the proposal to impose a 0.5% fee on the revenues of Polish crypto exchanges, which is not required by MiCA, while charging foreign-based trading platforms only a one-time fee of around $5,000.

Representatives of Poland’s crypto industry have complained that this would hurt their ability to compete with exchanges based abroad. It may even push Polish companies to relocate to more favorable jurisdictions in order to continue to work in their own market.

Lawmakers from the opposition highlighted these and other issues with the bill. Janusz Kowalski, from the right-wing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party suggested such charges should be capped and criticized the idea to grant supervisory powers to the KNF.

“Poland has enormous potential in the crypto asset innovation sector. But instead of harnessing it, the Ministry of Finance wants to stifle the development of crypto assets, which is a dramatic reversal of global trends,” Kowalski stated in a post on X, following the parliamentary session.

🔹Polska ma ogromny potencjał w sektorze innowacji kryptoaktywów. Ale zamiast go wykorzystać, @MF_GOV_PL chce zablokować rozwój kryptoaktywów, co jest dramatycznym odwróceniem światowych trendów.

🔹Chcemy jako @pisorgpl, aby polscy informatycy pracowali dla polskich firm, w… pic.twitter.com/ZRTTbMuAW5

— Janusz Kowalski 🇵🇱 (@JKowalski_posel) July 22, 2025

“As PiS, we want Polish IT specialists to work for Polish companies, in Poland—not in the Czech Republic, Malta, or Germany—and for Poland to be the number one investment destination for crypto asset investments,” he insisted, further reasoning:

“Therefore, we need simple and sensible regulations regarding crypto assets, not the overregulated law proposed by [Prime Minister] Donald Tusk’s government.”

Speaking to the leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Kowalski recently announced that if the Sejm does not amend the document, PiS-backed President-elect Karol Nawrocki, who is assuming office in early August, will veto the legislation.

“The government’s draft bill fails to meet the fundamental principle that should apply when implementing EU law: ‘EU+zero’,” he stated, rejecting rules added by Polish politicians. The latter “would block the development of crypto assets in Poland for years,” Kowalski warned.