Zondacrypto versus offices and bear market. Between discontinued investigations and customer complaints

The largest cryptocurrency exchange originating from Poland – zondacrypto – is back in the media headlines. The latest findings of “Puls Biznesu” suggest that Polish offices conducted “witch hunt” activities against this company based on questionable evidence. Thursday's reports by Gazeta Wyborcza indicate that some customers encountered difficulties with withdrawals from the platform.

Institutional offensive without evidence?

The analysis conducted by “Puls Biznesu” sheds new light on zondacrypto's relations with Polish law enforcement and supervisory authorities. It turns out that in response to reports from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (UKNF), investigators have interviewed over 1.5 thousand people in recent years. people. According to “PB”, the results of these proceedings, instead of burdening the stock exchange, became a kind of “certificate of morality” – the prosecutor's office discontinued subsequent investigations, not finding any crimes.

The actions of offices were often based on unreliable grounds. The KNF reports were inspired by, among others, entries on internet forums (e.g. Wykop, bitcoin.pl), which were not supported by any evidence. Moreover, many alleged “victims” admitted during interrogations that they did not feel like victims, and that the blockades of their accounts resulted from correctly applied AML (anti-money laundering) procedures, described in the regulations, which they simply had not read.

Stock exchange representatives directly call these actions deliberate pressure on a legally operating entity, going beyond supervisory standards.

Supervisory paradox

An important information paradox has arisen around the KNF's activity towards zondacrypto. On the one hand, as it proves Friday's article by “Puls Biznesu” the office showed great determination in sending notifications to the prosecutor's office and sending questions about cooperation with the stock exchange to hundreds of ASI and TFI funds. On the other hand, according to the material of “Gazeta Wyborcza” published on April 2, the same supervisor officially distances himself from the company.

The KNF spokesman, Jacek Barszczewski, refused to provide journalists with information about possible customer complaints, arguing that the office lacks jurisdiction to supervise cryptocurrency exchanges. Therefore, a situation arises in which a public institution does not actually supervise the entity, but at the same time actively engages the prosecutor's office to investigate its activities based on Internet rumors.

Problems with withdrawals from zondacrypto?

While “Puls Biznesu” presented the ineffectiveness of the official offensive against the zondacrypto exchange, “Gazeta Wyborcza” in an article from April 2 reported on the platform's alleged operational problems.

As “Wyborcza” pointed out, on March 31, the website “zonda-alert.pl” was created, informing about difficulties in withdrawing funds from the stock exchange, which was blocked almost immediately. It is not known who was behind it and what his intentions were. “GW” claims that it has talked to several other clients of the exchange who complained about delays in withdrawals of up to several days and transfers made in installments.

The exchange's technical support was supposed to explain these situations as system errors or transfers between wallets. Anonymous market experts quoted by “GW” suggested that the problem may be “wasting money” on marketing (including general sponsorship of the Polish Olympic Committee) during the ongoing bear market, which, according to them, could have led to zondacrypto liquidity problems.

Prepared by Michał Misiura

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