A political standoff leaves Poland out of the EU’s new crypto regulatory roll-out

A MiCA license issued in any EU country gives the holder access to the entire 27-nation bloc as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. That means Polish companies are likely to apply in countries such as Lithuania, Latvia or Germany before passporting their services back home.

“The business simply moves somewhere else,” Wojciech Kaszycki, chief strategy officer of Warsaw-based fintech BTCS, told CoinDesk in a video interview. “None of the Polish companies can receive the authorization in Poland.”

Nawrocki says the law, which he rejected for a third time earlier this month, gives regulators excessive powers, including the ability to block crypto companies’ websites and impose rules that could push businesses abroad. He’s also said it favors banks and large corporations over startups while creating an overly complex regulatory framework.

Kaszycki said he agreed with Nawrocki’s criticism that parts of the law went beyond MiCA itself. The draft, which has been passed by both houses of parliament, allows the Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) to freeze customer funds for months and block websites before companies have exhausted legal appeals.

Mateusz Kara, CEO of Morphic Financial Group, headquartered in London and with deep roots and operations in Poland, said the cost of a MiCA license and the political deadlock could “wipe out Polish crypto.”