Troubles are growing at Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto.
The company has already been criticized after reports of freezing or delaying customer withdrawals, and also drew the ire of Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday, who told parliament that the company sponsors politicians who oppose regulation of the cryptocurrency market.
According to the Associated Press, Tusk said before voting to override President Carol Norocki’s veto of the bill that some politicians blocking the bill showed they were toeing Zondacrypto’s line. He said the exchange has ties to Russia and has previously provided financial support to lawmakers.
Tusk’s comments came a day after Zondacrypto CEO Przemysław Kral turned to X to quell accusations that the company was helping itself raise investor funds to add to its declining reserves.
In a statement and video posted on the platform, Kral said the exchange has adequate reserves and maintains a Bitcoin wallet containing approximately 4,500 BTC, equivalent to approximately $330 million. But there’s a problem: it can’t access the funds because the previous owner didn’t hand over the private keys and is now gone.
Delayed withdrawals
Kral said he revealed the wallet address to “put an end to baseless accusations of alleged misappropriation of funds.” In 2021, when the ownership of the exchange then known as BitBay was transferred and Kral took over, former CEO Sylwester Suszek did not hand over the keys. Suzek has been missing for four years.
Zondacrypto has faced reports of customer withdrawals being frozen or delayed since the end of March, according to local news reports. Kral denies any misuse of customer funds and says the exchange remains profitable. He said he made the inaccessible wallet public to prove that the exchange had reserves.
Kral described the situation as part of a broader campaign against the company, according to an artificial intelligence translation of Kral’s Polish video. He noted that alleged political pressure, regulatory interference and coordinated media coverage contributed to the surge in withdrawal requests.
Local news outlets cited an analysis by blockchain intelligence firm Recoveris that found that Bitcoin balances in hot wallets associated with Zonda have fallen by approximately 99% since mid-2024. At one point Kral threatened legal action against Polish news outlets for reporting on the situation.
The outrage reignited longstanding controversy surrounding the company.
In 2024, a Polish investigation led by broadcaster TVN reported that 35% shareholder Marek K. was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a 1995 gang murder and fined 45 million zlotys ($12.5 million) for VAT fraud.
In 2019, the Polish Financial Supervisory Authority (KNF) placed BitBay on its public warning list for unauthorized financial activities.
As Fakt reported earlier this month, in January 2025, Poland’s consumer protection agency, the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection, launched an investigation into Zonda’s owner BB Trade Estonia, which is still ongoing, because the company “violated the collective interests of consumers.”
“Fundamentally wrong”
In an April 6 X post, Kral said reports of declining reserves stem from a “fundamental analytical error” in focusing solely on hot wallets. At the time, Zonda was a “stable, solvent and safe entity.”
As for the withdrawal delay, he said that the platform once processed tens of thousands of requests in a short period of time, which was much higher than normal levels. This is coupled with the “implementation of new, advanced security and transaction monitoring systems” that will mandate manual withdrawal verification.
The wallet, which serves as a proof of reserve based on customer demand, has seen little to no activity of late. On-chain data shows no outgoing transactions and a total of 32 receiving transactions.
In terms of veto votes, 191 MPs voted in favor of Norokki’s veto, while 243 opposed it and 20 MPs had too little mandate to overturn the decision, TVP World reported.
