UKNF przypomina o zasadach działalności giełd i kantorów kryptowalut w Polsce i ostrzega o ryzykach

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority, KNF, has published a press release in connection with crypto-assets, crypto-asset exchanges, and other related services. The objective of the statement is to provide some clarity as to the Authority’s power’s to regulate such exchanges, the trading of crypto-assets, and the provision of related services and to again warn of the potential risks when engaging in any activities relating to crypto-assets, for example via the crypto-asset exchange Binance Polska sp. z o.o..
Specifically, the KNF notes that it does not license, register, or supervise crypto-currency exchanges and their providers. In fact, such exchanges are not bound by any legal provisions regarding governance requirements or the safe-guarding of customer funds. The KNF further notes that such providers may only be regulated by the KNF, if – at the same time – they provide any payment services in Poland. However, even in such case, the crypto-asset or -currency related activity would not be supervised or subject to legal requirements.
In this context, the KNF further states that there’s currently no EU or Polish regulation governing crypto-assets service providers (CASPs) other than the Poland’s AML Act (Act of March 1, 2018 on counteracting money laundering and financing terrorism). As no licensing is required by CASPs, they are also not required to notify any legal authority when passporting into other EU member states. Nonetheless, pursuant to the AML Act, they must register with the Ministry of Finance. The current register may be found here. The above noted entity has been added to that register on September 29, 2022.
Despite such lack of supervision, the KNF states that any marketing material issued by crypto-asset exchanges and other related service providers must be truthful and non-deceptive. Any violation of this standard would be subject to regulatory action by the KNF and the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
As far as the above noted company, Binance Polska sp. z o.o., is concerned, the KNF notes that the entity is not under its supervision and there are also no intentions in this area. However, the regulator wants to remind of the fact that on July 7, 2021 it has published a „press statement“ drawing attention to the warnings published by foreign regulators concerning Binance Markets Limited from the Binance capital group.
Finally, the KNF refers to its Position on issuing and trading in cryptoassets when seeking more information on crypto-assets and crypto-asset exchanges and the regulatory environment they are operating in.