President Nawrocki vetoes cryptoasset market bill again
President Karol Nawrocki on Thursday vetoed the cryptoasset market bill for the second time, rejecting legislation aimed at implementing the EU regulations, namely the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) regulation and granting new supervisory powers to the financial watchdog.
The bill was designed to ensure the application of the EU regulation and introduce supervisory measures to prevent violations by regulated entities. It would have allowed the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) to suspend or halt public offerings of cryptoassets, prohibit their launch or block their admission to trading.
During parliamentary work, the Sejm reduced the maximum supervisory fee for cryptoasset firms from 0.4 pct of revenues, as proposed by the government, to 0.1 pct. The Finance Ministry had argued the fee would not be collected in the first year and would depend on actual supervisory costs.
Under the vetoed law, the KNF would also have been able to impose sanctions on issuers and providers, fine intermediaries and enter fraudulent crypto-related websites into a public register. The bill also provided for criminal liability for offences related to the issuance of tokens or unregistered cryptographic services, with fines of up to PLN 10 million for the most serious violations.
A nearly identical version of the bill was vetoed by Nawrocki in November last year on the grounds that it introduced excessive and disproportionate measures. The new act differed only in the maximum supervisory fee rate.
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