Poland's Lower House Passes Sanctions Bill Enabling Crypto Asset Freezes
Key Takeaways
- •Poland's Sejm approved the Act on Restrictive Measures by a vote of 240 to 202, with one abstention, and sent the bill to the Senate on Monday.
- •The draft law explicitly names crypto assets, using definitions from the EU's MiCA regulation, among the funds that authorities could freeze under sanctions.
- •The legislation would broaden Poland's national sanctions list beyond Russia-related measures to cover foreign interference and information manipulation that threaten national security.
- •Sanctions designations would take effect the day after publication, and restrictions would remain enforceable while any administrative court challenge is still pending.
- •The Senate has 30 days to approve, amend, or reject the bill; if it takes no action, the bill is deemed passed by the Sejm's version and moves to the president.
Poland's lower house of parliament has passed a bill that would broaden the country's sanctions framework and explicitly include crypto assets among the funds authorities can freeze when imposing restrictive measures. The legislation would also widen the grounds for adding individuals and companies to Poland's national sanctions list.
The Sejm approved the government-backed Act on Restrictive Measures on Friday by 240 votes to 202, with one abstention, and forwarded the legislation to the Senate on Monday, according to official parliamentary records.
Under the draft law, crypto assets — as defined under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) — are explicitly included among the financial funds that authorities could freeze when imposing sanctions. MiCA, the European Union's harmonized framework for crypto-asset markets, entered into force in 2023 and became fully applicable across the bloc in 2024. Anchoring the freeze powers to MiCA's definitions ties Poland's sanctions regime to the same crypto-asset categories applied across the EU, rather than a standalone national classification.
If enacted, Poland's interior minister would oversee the national sanctions list, with sanctions-listing decisions taking effect the day after authorities publish a designation. Affected individuals and companies could challenge such decisions in administrative court, but the bill allows enforcement to proceed before a court ruling — meaning the restrictions would stay in force while any challenge is pending.
Poland already maintains a national sanctions list under a 2022 law adopted to counter support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The new bill would expand the grounds for imposing national sanctions to include certain forms of foreign interference and information manipulation that pose a serious threat to national security, taking the list's remit beyond Russia-related measures.
The Senate has 30 days to approve, amend or reject the legislation. If it takes no action within that period, Poland's Constitution treats the bill as approved in the form passed by the Sejm, allowing it to proceed to the president for consideration — making the Senate's action within that window the next procedural step that determines the bill's fate.
Source: Cointelegraph
