Has Crypto Adoption Seen a Rise in Poland Over 2022?

When people discuss cryptocurrency these days, they often refer to the fact “it is growing worldwide”, but what exactly does that mean? While crypto might be making waves in certain countries across the globe, the development and integration are complicated. Not every country is crypto-friendly, and the countries that are crypto-friendly still face obstacles when it comes to integrating the concept sufficiently.

Take Poland, for instance. Ever since the first Bitcoin whitepaper was launched back in 2009, Poland has appeared innovative in its introduction. Thirteen years have passed since then, however, and crypto is still not seen as a currency unit, payment instrument or even an electronic alternative to money by the government. 

Having said that, cryptocurrency is a decentralised form of fiat currency, which means that it is owned and managed by the users – or, in other words, the people. In this way, it is the people who will inevitably decide whether crypto is the way forward in Poland, and it is the government who’ll have to shape its response around public sentiment. 

So have the people come closer to fully adopting crypto in 2022? Is the country any closer to replacing traditionalism with decentralisation? To understand that, it is first important to understand Poland’s history with crypto up to this point:

The Bright History Of Poland And Crypto

Ten or so years ago, Poland was one of the first and only countries in Europe to invite cryptocurrency in with open arms. In fact, at one stage, the official currency of Poland – the zloty - was the eleventh most popular currency in Bitcoin trade. 

In  October 2014, the price of Bitcoin was only $387, but that didn’t stop Poland from becoming the first country to accept the use of BTC by patients in Medicover Hospital, in Warsaw. The hospital treated more than 8,000 patients, and each one of them could pay for their hospitalisation, treatment and other bills using their invested crypto tokens. 

Poland also became the first country in the world to have its very own Bitcoin Embassy. This was known as Ambasada Bitcoin, and it was used to not only promote the use of Bitcoin in Poland, but also build a community that would aid the coin in its country-wide adoption (it should be mentioned, however, that this embassy was eventually shut down due to legal issues). As well as this, after the price of Ethereum grew toward the end of 2020, the Polish city Olsztyn even introduced its own Ethereum-based ecosystem to improve its municipal sector – with the plan to create its very own smart city in the future.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and roses for Poland, however. As the popularity of Bitcoin grew, so too did government awareness of its potential instabilities and danger to Polish business. In 2021, they began to take control.

The Regulations Of 2021

In 2018, it was announced that the Polish Finance Ministry was working on a set of regulations for crypto trading – with the Polish prime minister even calling for a ban on crypto trading entirely. Fast forward to 2021, and the Polish government implemented what is known as the AML V Directive. 

The goal of this regulation was to introduce instruments to protect against suspicious transactions and increase the transparency of the cryptocurrency sector. They applied to any providers of exchanges or intermediation of exchanges between digital tokens and means of payment. As well as this, they were also focused on maintaining accounts and identifying data which would be used to make such transactions. 

Toward the end of 2021, companies needed to sign-up with the Register of Virtual Currencies – which is maintained and supervised by the Polish Ministry of Finance – in order to form an exchange. The problem was the process ended up neither lessening the risk of money losses nor providing security for investors, and entry into the register did not mean crypto businesses could begin, as many banks in Poland ended up refusing to open and maintain a bank account for them.

The Effect On Poland’s Crypto Relationship

In 2022, the effects of this are still being felt, especially when it comes to new businesses choosing Poland as a base of operations. However, although the regulations put into place have been relatively insufficient, they have not harmed the relationship that Poland has with cryptocurrency entirely. 

Looking at the numbers, ownership of cryptocurrency in Poland increased to 900,000 toward the end of 2021 – when the government sanctions were being put in place. As well as this, the Polish citizens investing in crypto between the age of 18-25 was around 17.5% from 2018 to 2020. From 2021 to 2022, however, the number jumped to 31.8%, which was a significant increase in just a few years.

This, in many ways, is an indicator of where things might be headed. As mentioned before, if public sentiment is behind cryptocurrency, then this is the most important thing in terms of adoption. Although the government is introducing – or attempting to introduce – certain regulations that will help the system control cryptocurrency, the appetite for blockchain amongst the people is continuing to grow. 

But it’s slow. 2022 was not a big year as far as crypto adoption was concerned, but there was certainly a healthy, steady growth to be seen in Poland’s crypto integration. Looking back in history shows us that Poland is willing to be a crypto hub, and this sentiment is still ongoing – one needs only point towards Warsaw’s hugely popular CryptoVerse events – and in terms of the future, it is likely that Poland will continue to grow (albeit slowly) towards complete crypto adoption.