The law has fallen, long live the law. Poland 2050 is submitting a new project about cryptocurrencies

Poland 2050 is submitting a new act on the cryptocurrency market that meets the president's objections, Adam Gomoła, a member of parliament from this group, told PAP after the Sejm did not reject the president's veto. They will start to be lower, including: token issuance fees.

On Friday, the Sejm did not reject President Karol Nawrocki's veto to the bill on the crypto-assets market. A 3/5 majority is needed to override a veto. 243 MPs voted for rejection, 192 against. The majority of 3/5 was 261.

After the vote, the MPs of Poland 2050 announced that they would immediately submit another, very similar bill, but taking into account some of the reservations of President Karol Nawrocki, presented in the justification for the veto.

– We are submitting a project very similar to the government one, which was effectively vetoed by the president. This is an improved project that is a step forward towards the president's arguments, which, although far-fetched, may be worth considering. Our project includes, among others: a five-fold reduction in the maximum fees for token issuance, as well as the removal of some over-regulatory provisions – told PAP MP Adam Gomoła, considered the best cryptocurrency specialist in parliament. – The idea is to unblock the development of cryptoassets in Poland – he added.

According to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, tokens, or cryptoassets, are digital units of value assigned to a specific investment project. Anyone can buy them.

Even before the veto vote, PAP talked to MPs from various parties about this bill. Konrad Berkowicz from Konfederacja was critical of it – MPs from this group supported the veto on Friday. Berkowicz stated that in its current form, the act could even harm the Polish economy. – I would like to point out that this act implements the MICA regulation of the European Union. This regulation is already in force in many EU countries because it defined what was to be prohibited and what was allowed, and only ordered member states to set the amount of penalties for violating prohibitions and appoint an office that would supervise them, said Berkowicz.

He also pointed out that, for example, Romania added 16 pages to the EU document in its act, Austria 23 pages, Ireland 24 pages, Latvia five, the Czech Republic 12, Slovakia seven, Lithuania 23, and Cyprus only two pages. – However, Poland has written a law that has many more pages, with its own orders and prohibitions. What effect will this have? Will Poles be able to do less with cryptocurrencies in Poland? NO. Because to obtain this certificate, a Polish cryptocurrency company can move to another country where conditions are civilized and obtain the certificate there. However, the Polish state will directly lose from this, because the cryptocurrency industry will be pushed to other countries, Berkowicz noted.

However, Dariusz Wieczorek from the New Left had a different opinion. – We are the only country in the European Union that has an unregulated cryptocurrency market I'm surprised at anyone who was against this bill. Because apart from honest companies in this field, there are many that conduct criminal activities at the expense of citizens. The role of the state is the investor's safety so that he does not lose money, Wieczorek told PAP.

Adam Gomoła: The act is needed

MP Adam Gomoła also argued in an interview with PAP that such an act is needed because Poland is the last country that does not have it. – This act implements the MICA directive, designates the supervisory authority and specifies that the cryptocurrency market is part of the financial market. When preparing the project, our Ministry of Finance and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority approached the matter by using copies of solutions that have been operating on the banking and stock exchange markets for years. There are no provisions in the Act that are not copied from the regulations applicable to those markets, emphasized Gomoła.

In his opinion, the large number of pages in the act is due to the fact that it is the first draft of the act that deals with the cryptocurrency market at all. Therefore, it had to include references to all possible financial provisions and regulations applicable in Polish law. Other countries may have this particular bill adapting to MICA, which is thinner because they have previously introduced regulations regarding cryptocurrencies.

– Moreover, our Ministry of Finance wanted to clarify certain provisions at the level of the Act, so as not to do it at the level of regulations or at the level of internal guidelines of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. It also wanted to avoid as much as possible court disputes, which in many countries involve supervised entities with the supervisory authority, precisely because the regulations are too general – explained the Polish 2050 MP. – From the point of view of the transparency of this law, it is probably better that we create it at the level of a parliamentary debate rather than in the privacy of the KNF offices – he emphasized.

According to Gomoła, today the cryptocurrency market is “a man in a coma”. It has been impossible to start new cryptocurrency businesses for almost half a year, because on June 30 this year. the deadline for regulating this market imposed by the MICA regulation has expired. – If the president is talking about a blockade of development in the form of this act, because we already have a blockade of development – said Gomoła.

– If there is no law, the clinical death of the Polish cryptocurrency market will occur on July 1 next year, because even the old licenses will no longer be valid. This market will, of course, operate, but supervised by entities from other countries – added the Polish 2050 MP.

The act was intended to implement the MiCA regulation

The purpose of the act on the crypto-assets market vetoed by the president – passed by the Sejm on November 7 this year. – there were, among others, introduction of the EU MiCA regulation (The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation). Pursuant to the act, supervision over the crypto-assets market would be exercised by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, equipped with appropriate supervisory and control tools. Some obligations of issuers of asset-linked tokens and e-money tokens, as well as crypto-asset service providers, have been clarified.

In the event of a violation of the regulations, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority was to make entries in its register of unfair Internet domains used to conduct activities in the field of cryptoassets. This is to protect customers and the market against dishonest entities.

The Act introduced criminal liability for crimes committed, among others, in connection with the issuance of tokens or the provision of crypto-asset services without prior notification to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. The perpetrators of the most serious violations would be threatened with, among others: a fine of up to PLN 10 million.

The new regulations also regulated the issues of online currency exchange offices, which would also be subject to the supervision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Pursuant to the act, they would run individual payment accounts for their clients, which would enable, among other things, protection of customers' money and allowed them to have it at any time.

The president justified the veto, among other things: that the act provided for the government to be able to disable the websites of companies operating on the cryptocurrency market with one click. The regulations on blocking domains are not transparent and may lead to abuse, he said.

The second circumstance that led to the veto is the size of the regulations and, therefore, the lack of transparency in the adopted solutions. While the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have implemented regulations of several or a dozen pages, the Polish act has over a hundred of them. Overregulation is a simple way to push companies abroad – to the Czech Republic, Lithuania or Malta – instead of creating conditions for them to earn and pay taxes in Poland – it was emphasized in the justification for the veto. (PAP)

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