The troubles facing Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto have escalated, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk alleging that the company has ties to politicians who have opposed crypto market regulation. Tusk made the comments in parliament, stating that Zondacrypto's sponsorship of certain politicians has led to them blocking legislation.
The exchange has connections to Russia and has previously provided financial support to lawmakers. This comes as Zondacrypto CEO Przemysław Kral attempted to address allegations that the company is using investor funds to supplement its dwindling reserves.
Kral revealed that the exchange owns a bitcoin wallet containing approximately 4,500 BTC, valued at around $330 million, but is unable to access the funds due to a missing private key. The key was not handed over by former CEO Sylwester Suszek in 2021, and Suszek has been missing for four years.
Zondacrypto has been experiencing issues with frozen or delayed customer withdrawals since late March, prompting Kral to deny any misuse of client funds and assert that the exchange remains profitable. The situation has sparked a wider campaign against the company, with Kral citing political pressure, regulatory interference, and coordinated media coverage as contributing factors to the 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 has been ongoing, with the company facing investigations and warnings from regulatory authorities in the past.
In 2019, Poland's Financial Supervision Authority placed BitBay, Zondacrypto's predecessor, on its public warning list for unauthorized financial activities. More recently, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection launched an investigation into BB Trade Estonia, Zonda's owner, for violating consumer interests.
Kral has attributed reports of declining reserves to a 'fundamental analytical error' and has assured that the platform is stable, solvent, and secure. However, the issue of withdrawal delays persists, with Kral explaining that the implementation of new security and transaction monitoring systems has led to manual withdrawal verifications. The wallet presented as proof of reserves has seen minimal recent activity, with no outgoing transactions and only 32 receiving transactions.
The situation has also been impacted by a recent veto vote, in which 191 MPs voted in favor of President Karol Nawrocki's veto and 243 against it, falling short of the required number to overturn the block.