Poland's Lower House Backs Warrantless Freezes on Crypto and Bank Accounts

The Sejm pushed the government-backed bill through on Nov. 6 with 240 votes in favor, 202 against and one abstention. The Act on Restrictive Measures creates a national sanctions list run by the interior minister, who could add individuals and companies deemed security threats and hit their assets. Lawmakers waved through amendments during the session that spelled out how crypto assets, financial instruments and other property fall under the restrictions.

The mechanics matter for crypto. Banks and exchanges holding assets for a listed customer would have to obey freezing orders, and regulated providers could be barred from processing transactions or handing funds to a designated person. Self-custody is murkier: an order alone doesn't hand officials the private keys to a personal wallet, and enforcement hinges on whether authorities can identify the assets at all. The bill does not impose a blanket freeze on crypto in Poland — only on people and entities named on the list.

The list targets sanctions violations and national security threats, including foreign-backed interference and coordinated information operations that the government says threaten public order. It's Poland's domestic mechanism, built alongside its implementation of EU Directive 2024/1226 on penalties for breaching EU restrictive measures, and it sits separate from MiCA, which governs crypto service providers and licensing. Filing an appeal before an administrative court won't automatically lift the freeze while the case runs.

Critics are loud. In an October analysis, legal group Ordo Iuris argued the list goes further than EU law demands and could collide with constitutional protections for property and free expression, questioning provisions that allow sanctions based on the probability that funds could support a designated entity or on personal ties to someone already listed. The National Broadcasting Council raised its own September warning that fuzzy definitions around information manipulation could catch media outlets. After the vote, opposition lawmaker Roman Fritz didn't mince words: “SHAME IN THE SEJM! THEY PASSED THE TOTALITARIAN LAW! COMMUNISM IS BACK IN FULL!” he said, according to a post circulated by Slavic Networks.

Next stop is the Senate, which can amend the text before it bounces back to the lower house and lands with President Karol Nawrocki. His record is the wildcard: the Sejm fell short in September when it tried to override his third veto of a separate bill implementing MiCA domestically, which would have put crypto firms under the Polish Financial Supervision Authority — the override vote was 241-198, under the required three-fifths. Nawrocki had objected to the compliance costs and what he called overly restrictive enforcement powers. He hasn't weighed in on this one yet.