Problem
4 min
despite poland’s rapid economic rise and its position as one of europe’s most digital savvy nations, there are serious structural gaps between financial potential and available tools in the digital asset economy the core problem poland — a trillion dollar, mobile first economy — is digital in behavior but analogue in financial infrastructure consumers lack a stable, regulated pln gateway to web3 investors cannot access polish government bonds, equities, or rwas in tokenised form businesses & smes lack efficient on chain fx and settlement rails regulators & policymakers risk ceding financial sovereignty to u s issued stablecoins despite m2 > pln 2 6t , pln 1t annual digital payments , and record bond/equity volumes , poland has 0% representation in global stablecoin and rwa markets problems breakdown 1\ no pln stablecoin infrastructure as of 2025, over 90% of global stablecoin market capitalization is denominated in usd (usdt, usdc, dai) eur stablecoins (eurc, seur) make up less than 3% pln has 0% representation poland’s m2 money supply exceeds pln 2 6 trillion , yet none of this is captured in tokenised cash equivalents even 1% tokenisation ( pln 26b) would rank among the largest stablecoin issuers in europe consequence polish fintechs, psps, and crypto users must route transactions through eur or usd stablecoins , adding fx costs (up to 3–5% spreads) and friction to on chain activity 2\ limited access to tokenised assets (rwa gap) poland’s treasury bondspot platform sees pln 130b in turnover monthly ( pln 1 56t annually) yet none of this volume is available to global investors in tokenised form polish equities turnover reached a record pln 331 4b in 2024 , yet tokenisation of wse listed shares is virtually non existent global tokenised rwa market is already valued at >$7b (2024) and projected to exceed $30b by 2030 , but poland’s assets are absent from this market this creates a missed opportunity global investors cannot access polish yields or equities in compliant, digital form 3\ fragmented & dollar dominated defi defi lending protocols (aave, compound) and dexs (uniswap, curve) are >95% usd denominated no major protocol supports native pln pairs — despite the polish fx market being among the most liquid in cee the lack of pln denominated liquidity creates systemic fx risk polish and eastern european users must hold or collateralize in usd/eur, exposing them to volatility and extra cost with defi tvl exceeding $90b globally (2025) , eastern europe is underrepresented due to this currency gap 4\ inefficient cross border payments poland is the eu’s 6th largest economy , heavily integrated into eu and u s trade flows yet cross border payment costs remain high average remittance cost into poland is 5% (world bank 2024 data) smes engaging in eu↔pln trade face bank fx spreads of 2–4% , plus multi day settlement domestic rails like blik handle pln 172 6b annually , but they are closed loop , not global consequence poland’s exporters, smes, and migrants face friction and costs that programmable stablecoins can eliminate 5\ regulatory & sovereignty gap american issued stablecoins (usdt, usdc) dominate european crypto markets, accounting for >80% of stablecoin transactions in the eu the eu’s digital euro remains years away current ecb pilots will not deliver a retail digital euro until 2027–28 at the earliest without a pln stablecoin, poland risks being locked out of shaping the eu’s digital monetary future — instead importing u s stablecoins under foreign jurisdiction this creates a sovereignty gap poland has the economic scale and digital adoption, but no domestically anchored digital money
