The woes of Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto continue to escalate. Following reports of frozen or delayed customer withdrawals, the company has drawn the ire of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who alleged that Zondacrypto sponsored politicians to block crypto market regulation. Tusk stated that certain politicians' actions were in line with the exchange's interests, as they had received financial support from the company, which has ties to Russia.
This accusation came before a parliamentary vote to overturn President Karol Nawrocki's veto of the law. The exchange's CEO, Przemysław Kral, took to social media to counter allegations that the company was using investors' funds to replenish its dwindling reserves.
Kral revealed that Zondacrypto owns a bitcoin wallet containing approximately 4,500 BTC, valued at around $330 million. However, the company is unable to access these funds due to a missing private key, which was not handed over by the previous CEO, Sylwester Suszek, when he left the company in 2021. Suszek has been missing for four years.
Kral denied any misuse of client funds and claimed that the exchange remains profitable. The situation has sparked a surge in withdrawal requests, which Kral attributed to a broader campaign against the company, including political pressure, regulatory interference, and coordinated media coverage.
An analysis by blockchain intelligence firm Recoveris found that bitcoin balances in hot wallets tied to Zonda have dropped by about 99% since mid-2024. The controversy surrounding Zondacrypto is not new, with the company having faced issues in the past, including being placed on Poland's Financial Supervision Authority's public warning list for unauthorized financial activities in 2019.
In 2024, an investigative report identified one of the company's shareholders as a criminal with a history of complicity in a gangland murder and VAT fraud. The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has been investigating Zonda's owner, BB Trade Estonia, since January 2025 for violating consumer interests. Kral has dismissed reports of declining reserves as a 'fundamental analytical error' and attributed withdrawal delays to an unusual surge in requests and the implementation of new security measures. The wallet presented as proof of reserves has seen minimal recent activity, with no outgoing transactions and only 32 receiving transactions.
The parliamentary vote to overturn the presidential veto ultimately failed, with 191 MPs voting in favor and 243 against, 20 short of the required number to overturn the block.