The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) has issued licenses to two companies operating in the Polish crypto space. Coinquista and BitClude both offer digital asset exchange services, a crypto wallet, and a number of other features. With this green light for operations from the KNF, the dynamic duo can go about increasing their offering and helping to push Poland to the top of the crypto adoption charts. Despite the fact that the license doesn’t clearly state that the two firms can offer crypto services to people in the country, it’s definitely a step in the right direction for the crypto-sceptic nation.
Crypto Trading Only Legal for Seven Months
For quite some time, Poland deemed crypto trading as an illegal activity. The country went so far as to start a slander campaign against the crypto world, striking fear into the hearts and souls of its citizens. However, in June 2018, the KNF admitted to its slander campaign and declared crypto trading a legal activity. Since then, Poland has gone from strength to strength in the crypto world. While it’s still in the early days of crypto adoption, it’s certainly coming on leaps and bounds.
Poland Gets Crypto Tax Laws
Two months after stating that crypto trading was a legal activity, the government created a tax reform that now includes crypto activity. Not one to miss out on the crypto tax cash cow, Poland quickly defined what a cryptocurrency is, what constitutes crypto trading, and the base payable rates of tax on these activities. Many nations around the world are starting to implement similar tax reforms, just in time for the tax season – we’re pretty sure this is no coincidence. The UK is one of the most recent nations to implement tax laws for crypto trading, with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) activating these new laws live just before Christmas.
Are More Exchanges Coming Soon?
The reason behind the move to give these two exchanges semi-clearance is still unclear, but it begs the question – are more exchanges coming soon? This new license is the first stepping stone towards the KNF dishing out licenses to other top crypto exchanges from around the world. If the KNF hands out a license to a large international exchange, we could see a lot more crypto trading activity in Poland.
No matter how you cut it, this is great news for Poland and Polish crypto traders. Now Polish crypto traders have access to two regulated crypto exchanges and no longer need to rely on sites like LocalBitcoins. While these two exchanges will make it easier for the government to track crypto taxes owed, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
