BitBay later changed its name to ZondaCrypto, and its operating company was registered in Estonia. To customers it was an ordinary cryptocurrency exchange: users could buy and sell cryptocurrency, hold digital assets and fiat money in accounts on the platform, and carry out transactions in traditional currencies. Customers began running into problems when withdrawing their money. In April 2026, Polish prosecutors officially opened criminal proceedings. Michał Gramatyka, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs, brings us up to speed.
Investigators are examining whether a large number of customers may have been misled about their ability to buy, hold and withdraw cryptocurrency and fiat money through the platform. Possible money laundering has become a separate line of inquiry.
Hundreds of millions of złoty in losses
In its first official statement, the prosecutor’s office spoke of at least 350 million złoty in possible losses. By the summer, the number of complaints from injured parties had exceeded 3,600. Investigators have questioned almost a thousand victims, and seized 162 pieces of electronic equipment and more than 250 terabytes of data from ZondaCrypto’s servers.
The investigation quickly extended beyond Poland. Investigators began tracing the movement of funds on the blockchain, asking international cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze potentially linked assets, and cooperating with law enforcement agencies in other countries.
In May, Polish investigators contacted more than a hundred of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. In June, Poland set up a joint investigation team with Estonia, and separately began coordinating with the authorities in Monaco.
In July, prosecutors announced that they had frozen an account at a French bank to which €4 million — more than 17.3 million złoty — had been transferred. According to investigators, the money came from a transaction involving the transfer of ownership of a Monaco-registered company whose owners included people connected with the ZondaCrypto case. Polish prosecutors believe this transaction may have been one stage in laundering the proceeds of a crime against the exchange’s customers. A French court authorised the seizure of the money.
The case has gone beyond the exchange itself
On 25 August 2026, Polish prosecutors announced that the ZondaCrypto investigation had been merged with another criminal case, concerning the disappearance of Sylwester Suszek. Investigators are therefore looking at the history of how BitBay/ZondaCrypto was set up and run not only in the context of a possible financial scam, but also as a potentially important element in the case of the exchange founder’s disappearance.
At the same time, prosecutors are examining another line of inquiry: possible political funding and influence.
The official statement mentions, among other things, the foundation of former justice minister and prosecutor general Zbigniew Ziobro; Przemysław Wipler’s foundation and people associated with him; the legislative process for regulating cryptocurrencies; Telewizja Republika and its president, Tomasz Sakiewicz; the CPAC conference; possible financial gain for the president of the Polish Olympic Committee, Radosław Piesiewicz; and the activities of people who helped former deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski.
These mentions do not, however, automatically mean that the people or organisations listed have committed crimes. What prosecutors announced was specifically that they are checking information about possible crimes connected with the funding of these entities or with the activities of people linked to them. Investigators’ suspicions must be kept separate from facts established by a court.
Polish Olympic Committee president detained
On 27 August 2026, the president of the Polish Olympic Committee, Radosław Piesiewicz, was detained.
Prosecutors brought two charges against him. The first concerns so-called influence peddling. According to investigators, in 2025 Piesiewicz cited his contacts and influence at Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection — UOKiK — and promised to intervene in proceedings concerning ZondaCrypto.
In return, prosecutors allege, he was to receive an expensive watch worth 169,476 złoty.
Investigators further allege that in April 2026 Piesiewicz secured payments from a representative of BB Trade Estonia of 194,420.15 złoty on 7 April and €100,000 on 8 April.
According to prosecutors, the company was by then already at risk of insolvency or bankruptcy. They therefore suspect that the payments may have been made to the detriment of other creditors, above all the exchange’s customers.
Piesiewicz denied the charges and gave investigators a detailed account. After his detention, prosecutors carried out searches, including at his home and at the offices of the Polish Olympic Committee. Investigators seized a watch, a phone and around 34,000 złoty in Polish and foreign currency.
Investigators are now trying to establish whether a system of political connections, media support, funding and lobbying existed around the crypto business.
The crypto market and the problem of regulation
A separate issue in the case is the question of state regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Deputy Digital Affairs Minister Michał Gramatyka admitted that, in his view, the Polish authorities had been too slow to regulate the crypto-asset market properly. He stressed the risks for customers who invest in cryptocurrencies, as well as the problem of transparency in the movement of funds.
In traditional banking there are mechanisms that make it possible to establish who is making a transfer and who is receiving it. In the crypto-asset market, he says, such safeguards are much weaker.
In this context, the official links the regulatory problems to the president’s vetoes of the government’s legislative initiatives. In his assessment, comprehensive rules could have created additional mechanisms for overseeing the activities of cryptocurrency companies.
The mere fact that ZondaCrypto was registered in Estonia, he says, did not mean there was no scope at all for supervision. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority could have approached the relevant body in Estonia and checked, among other things, whether the exchange was investing customers’ money and whether customer funds were kept separate from the company’s operating funds.
Advertising as part of the trust model
Another aspect of the ZondaCrypto story is the company’s massive advertising presence.
The report notes that the exchange’s adverts appeared on television, near airports and online. YouTube channels received sponsorship from ZondaCrypto. The brand was also present in sport: the Polish football club Raków Częstochowa and Italy’s Juventus are among those mentioned.
Critics of this model argue that large-scale advertising helps give customers a sense that a business is stable and legitimate. Trust, in their view, is one of the key elements of financial schemes in which problems with the money become apparent only when customers try to get it back.
Big tech platforms in the spotlight too
The ZondaCrypto story has also raised a broader question: the responsibility of digital platforms for the advertising they carry.
The Polish government has begun considering tighter regulation not only of the cryptocurrency market but also of the activities of big technology companies. The exchange’s advertising on Facebook has attracted particular attention.
Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski has called on the European Commission to fine Meta €250 million. The report links this to complaints about the platform’s mechanisms for policing fraudulent advertising.
Another issue is the implementation in Poland of the EU’s Digital Services Act. Its supporters believe it would strengthen the state’s ability to protect users from illegal or harmful content and conduct by digital platforms.
The report also raises the question of taxing big technology companies. At issue is a situation in which Polish companies buy advertising on Facebook and are invoiced from Ireland, while much of the economic effect of that activity falls on the Polish market.
What lies behind the ZondaCrypto case
The ZondaCrypto case has thus gradually turned from a story about the problems of a crypto exchange’s customers into a far broader investigation.
Several threads intersect in it: possible financial crimes, the movement of money through international jurisdictions, money laundering, the disappearance of BitBay’s founder Sylwester Suszek, possible political connections, lobbying, the funding of media and sports organisations, and the question of state regulation of the cryptocurrency market.
At the same time, many of the claims in this story are, for now, still only the investigators’ version of events. Final conclusions about the guilt of specific people or organisations can be drawn only on the basis of the criminal proceedings and court rulings.
The case itself has already become an argument for those who favour tighter control of cryptocurrencies, digital advertising and big technology platforms.
And the main question now is not only where ZondaCrypto customers’ money went, but also how the whole system around the exchange worked — from finance and advertising to political contacts and the regulatory environment.
Dr. Myroslav Trofymuk
Born in Lviv. Designer, director, musician, researcher, founder of ZEMLA STUDIO. Master of classical philology and digital marketing, PhD in the history of Ukrainian literature. Member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Since 2022 he has authored the CENTRUM MUNDI audio show for Polish Radio for Ukraine, continuing the same research into the contemporary music scene in Ukraine and Poland.
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