Zonda exchange says 4.5K BTC wallet inaccessible amid withdrawal crisis
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The CEO of the troubled Zonda exchange has disclosed a Bitcoin wallet holding around 4,500 BTC, but said the private keys were never transferred during a company handover.
Crypto exchange Zonda said a cold wallet holding around 4,500 Bitcoin is currently inaccessible as the platform faces concerns over delayed withdrawals.
Zonda CEO Przemysław Kral posted a video statement on Thursday disclosing the exchange’s wallet address, saying the private keys to the wallet were never handed over.
In the statement, Kral denied accusations of misappropriating funds, saying the private keys were intended to be handed over by Zonda founder and former CEO Sylwester Suszek, who has been missing since 2022.
“So for all those who claim that I had anything to do with Sylwester's disappearance, this is the prime argument that I care the most about Sylwester being found,” Kral said.
The disclosure follows weeks of controversy around the exchange after local reports suggested a probe into Zonda by Polish authorities, followed by an analysis by blockchain platform Recoveris, which alleged Zonda could have been insolvent based on a sharp drop in the exchange's hot wallet balances.
Kral’s public disclosure of the wallet marks the first time that Zonda has disclosed the address amid the controversy.
The address cited by the CEO holds 4,503 Bitcoin (BTC) currently worth about $334 million, with the last transaction recorded in November 2025 as of the time of publication.
The CEO previously denied insolvency claims following the hot wallet investigation by Recoveris on April 6, insisting that Zonda remained fully solvent with more than 4,500 BTC in holdings.
In the video, Kral said that much of Zonda’s recent withdrawal pressure was driven by an abnormal spike in withdrawal requests, which he linked to negative media coverage.
He said Zonda normally processed around 100,000 withdrawal requests per year but saw more than 25,000 requests within hours and days around April 6.
Kral said the company plans to take legal action over what he described as false claims surrounding the exchange and promised to fulfill obligations to customers amid withdrawal concerns.
Polish lawmaker Tomasz Mentzen said on X that Zonda may have lost access to its cold wallet following the disappearance of former CEO Suszek. Kral did not explicitly say the funds were lost, but said the private keys to the wallet were never transferred during the company handover.
Suszek has reportedly been missing since March 2022, with reporting referencing alleged criminal ties among certain shareholders of Zonda, formerly BitBay.
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The exchange was founded in Poland in 2014 and rebranded as Zonda in 2021. Kral told Cointelegraph in February that the company registered in Estonia amid regulatory uncertainty in Poland, citing delays in implementing the European Union-wide Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
The issue has drawn the exchange into a broader political debate, adding pressure on regulators and increasing scrutiny of Poland’s crypto sector.
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Source: CoinTelegraph
