Summary
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused crypto exchange Zondacrypto of using “Russian funds linked to organized crime” and “Russian security services” to fund opposition politicians and block a proposed MiCA-style crypto law.
- Tusk told Parliament that some lawmakers opposing his government’s cryptoasset legislation were “serving the interests” of Zondacrypto, which he said sponsored a CPAC event in Poland at which former US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem supported the presidential candidacy of nationalist Karol Nawrocki.
- President Nawrocki, elected in June 2025 with the support of former US President Donald Trump, twice vetoed MiCA-aligned regulations, leaving Polish exchanges in legal limbo and deepening a national security-tinged standoff over how to control digital assets.
Speaking in the Sejm on Friday ahead of a vote on overturning his rival’s veto, Tusk claimed that “Russian money was behind the Zondacrypto cryptocurrency platform,” which he said allegedly “supported political and social initiatives” aligned with right-wing groups in Poland. He told lawmakers that the company’s support was linked “not only to Russian capital” but also to “groups linked to the so-called bratva, a term for Russian mafia organizations, as well as Russian security services.”
Tusk links Zondacrypto to Russian ‘Bratva’ and intelligence
According to Tusk, the internal security agency’s findings show that Zondacrypto “sponsors political and social gatherings in Poland and defends very specific political factions,” including politicians from the former ruling Law and Justice party and the far-right Confederation. He highlighted the exchange’s role as an “important sponsor” of a Conservative Political Action Conference event in Rzeszów in March 2025, where Kristi Noem publicly supported Karol Nawrocki’s presidential campaign.
Tusk presented the latest vote as a security test, telling parliament that there is “no doubt that this market is extremely vulnerable to manipulation by foreign services, intelligence organizations and criminal enterprises.” In an article on X, he presented the regulatory struggle as a direct choice between “Russian money and services and the security of the state and citizens.”
The political clash comes after President Nawrocki twice blocked government efforts to align Poland with the EU’s crypto-asset markets framework. In February, he vetoed a second cryptoasset bill that he called “virtually identical” to legislation he had already rejected in December 2025, arguing that the government’s model was “flawed” and would harm consumers and small businesses.
This position left Warsaw as an exception to the MiCA. Without enabling legislation, Polish exchanges and wallet providers have no national way to initiate the licensing process required by EU rules, putting them at a disadvantage compared to their peers in countries that already issue MiCA authorizations. A previous attempt to override an earlier veto also failed in December 2025, when Parliament upheld Nawrocki’s decision despite Tusk’s warning that unregulated platforms were “particularly vulnerable to manipulation by foreign intelligence services, organized crime and mafias.”
As of now, Zondacrypto has not publicly commented in detail on the latest accusations, while the president’s office insists that it does not oppose crypto regulation per se but rejects the government’s approach. As other EU members move forward with licensing and enforcing MiCA, Poland’s struggle over whether its crypto market is a conduit for Russian “Bratva” money or a sector strangled by political scoring is evolving into a broader test of how national security, party financing and digital asset rules intersect in Europe.
Related crypto.news coverage of regulation and security risks in digital assets includes an explanation of why the United States favors tokenization-friendly accounting, an analysis of how Trump-era regulatory withdrawals have reshaped the SEC’s crypto unit, and a report on MiCA-aligned stablecoin rules emerging in other jurisdictions.
