The troubles facing Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto continue to escalate. Following reports of customer withdrawals being frozen or delayed, the company has come under fire from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who claimed in parliament that Zondacrypto had sponsored politicians opposed to crypto market regulation. Tusk suggested that these politicians were acting in the exchange's interests by blocking legislation.
The exchange has ties to Russia and had previously provided financial support to lawmakers. Tusk's comments came after Zondacrypto's CEO, Przemysław Kral, attempted to address allegations that the company was using investor funds to supplement its dwindling reserves. Kral stated that the exchange has sufficient reserves and owns a bitcoin wallet containing approximately 4,500 BTC, valued at around $330 million.
However, the company is unable to access these funds because the previous owner failed to provide the private key and is now missing. Kral revealed the wallet address to counter accusations of misappropriating funds, explaining that the key was not handed over by former CEO Sylwester Suszek in 2021 when ownership of the exchange changed.
Suszek has been missing for four years. Zondacrypto has faced issues with delayed customer withdrawals since late March, according to local news reports.
Kral denied any misuse of client funds and asserted that the exchange remains profitable. He made the inaccessible wallet public to demonstrate the exchange's reserves.
Kral framed the situation as part of a broader campaign against the company, citing political pressure, regulatory interference, and coordinated media coverage that contributed to a surge in withdrawal requests. 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 long-running. In 2024, Polish investigative reporting identified a shareholder, Marek K., who held a 35% stake, as a criminal sentenced to eight years in prison for complicity in a 1995 gangland murder and fined for VAT fraud. In 2019, Poland's Financial Supervision Authority placed BitBay, the exchange's former name, on its public warning list for unauthorized financial activities. In January 2025, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection started an investigation into BB Trade Estonia, Zonda's owner, for violating consumer interests.
Kral attributed reports of declining reserves to a 'fundamental analytical error' by focusing solely on hot wallets. He stated that the platform processed an unusually high number of withdrawal requests and implemented new security and transaction monitoring systems, resulting in manual withdrawal verifications. The wallet presented as proof of reserves has seen minimal recent activity, with no outgoing transactions and 32 receiving transactions. The veto vote saw 191 MPs vote in favor and 243 against, 20 mandates short of overturning the block.