The problems of Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto continue to grow.
The company, already facing criticism after reports that customer withdrawals were frozen or delayed, on Friday faced the ire of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who told parliament that the company had sponsored some politicians who opposed crypto market regulation.
According to an AP report, Tusk said before voting to overturn President Karol Nawrocki’s veto on the legislation that some politicians’ blocking of the legislation showed they were toeing ZondaCrypto’s line. He said the exchange had ties to Russia and had previously provided financial support to lawmakers.
Tusk’s comments come a day after ZondaCrypto CEO Przemyslaw Kral turned to X to calm allegations the company was helping investors fund its dwindling reserves.
In a statement and video published on the platform, Kral said that the exchange has sufficient reserves, and that he has a Bitcoin wallet worth about 4,500 BTC, or about $330 million. However, there is a problem: it cannot access the funds because the previous owner did not hand over the private key and it has now disappeared.
delayed withdrawal
Kral said he disclosed the wallet address “to reduce unfounded allegations of alleged misappropriation of funds.” The keys were not handed over by former CEO Sylvester Suzek in 2021, when ownership of the exchange, then known as Bitbay, was transferred and Kral took over. Suzek has been missing for four years.
ZondaCrypto has faced reports of delays or delays in customer withdrawals since late March, according to local news reports. Kral denied any misuse of customer funds and said the exchange remained profitable. He said he promoted the inaccessible wallet to prove the exchange had reserves.
According to the AI translation of his Polish video, Kral created the situation as part of a broader campaign against the company. They pointed to perceived political pressure, regulatory interference and coordinated media coverage that contributed to the increase in withdrawal requests.
Analysis conducted by blockchain intelligence firm Recoveris and cited by local news outlets found that Bitcoin balances in hot wallets linked to Zonda have declined by nearly 99% since mid-2024. At one point, Kral threatened legal action against Polish news outlets covering the situation.
This uproar has revived a long-running controversy regarding the company.
Polish investigative reporting led by broadcaster TVN in 2024 through shareholder Marek K. He was sentenced to eight years in prison for involvement in a 1995 gangland murder and fined 45 million zloty ($12.5 million) for VAT fraud.
In 2019, Poland’s Financial Supervisory Authority (KNF) placed BitBay on its public warning list for unauthorized financial activities.
In January 2025, Poland’s consumer protection agency, the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection, launched an investigation against Zonda’s owner BB Trade Estonia for “violating the collective interests of consumers” – which is still ongoing. Fact had reported earlier this month.
“fundamental error”
In an April 6 post on X, Kral said that the reported decline in reserves arose from a “fundamental analytical error” by focusing only on hot wallets. At the time, the Zonda stood as a “stable, solvent and safe entity”.
As far as withdrawal delays are concerned, he said that at one point the platform processed thousands of requests in a short period, which was much higher than the normal level. Furthermore, “the implementation of new, advanced security and transaction monitoring systems” forced manual withdrawal verification.
The wallet, presented as proof of reserves after customer demand, has seen very little activity recently. Onchain data does not show any outgoing activity, and shows a total of 32 received transactions.
As for the veto vote, 191 MPs voted in favor of Nawrocki’s veto and 243 against it, 20 mandates too few to overturn the bloc, TVP World reported.