The troubles for Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto continue to escalate. Following reports of customer withdrawals being frozen or delayed, the company has drawn criticism from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who stated in parliament that Zondacrypto had sponsored politicians opposing crypto market regulation. Tusk's comments were made before a vote to overturn President Karol Nawrocki's veto of the law, as reported by AP.
The exchange has ties to Russia and had previously provided financial support to lawmakers, according to Tusk. This development came a day after Zondacrypto's CEO, Przemysław Kral, addressed allegations that the company was using investors' funds to boost 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 cannot access these funds because the previous owner failed to hand over the private key and has since disappeared. Kral revealed the wallet address to counter accusations of misappropriating funds, explaining that the key was not transferred by former CEO Sylwester Suszek in 2021 when the exchange's ownership changed. Suszek has been missing for four years.
Zondacrypto has been facing issues with delayed customer withdrawals since late March, according to local news reports. Kral denied any misuse of client funds and claimed 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 led to a surge in withdrawal requests.
An analysis by blockchain intelligence firm Recoveris, cited by local news outlets, found that bitcoin balances in hot wallets linked to Zonda have dropped by about 99% since mid-2024. The controversy surrounding the company has been ongoing, with Polish investigative reporting in 2024 identifying 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.
An investigation into BB Trade Estonia, Zonda's owner, for violating consumer interests, started in January 2025 and is still in progress. Kral attributed reports of declining reserves to a 'fundamental analytical error' by focusing solely on hot wallets and stated that the platform processed an unusually high number of withdrawal requests, leading to manual verifications due to new security and transaction monitoring systems.
The presented wallet has seen minimal recent activity, with no outgoing transactions and 32 receiving transactions. The veto vote resulted in 191 MPs voting in favor and 243 against, 20 mandates short of overturning the block.