Poland pays Olympic medalists overdue crypto bonuses after sponsor collapse, but snubs top athlete in thanks

Background

In October 2025, Zondacrypto became the general sponsor of the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl), promising for the first time to reward athletes placing fourth through eighth at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics with token bonuses. The agreement also covered medalists, who would receive a mix of cash and tokens. After the Games, however, the exchange faced a criminal investigation and its tokens lost all value, leaving three medalists — ski jumpers Kacper Tomasiak and Paweł Wąsek, and speed skater Władimir Siemirunnij — unable to cash out their rewards, together with two coaches.

Payment announced

On June 15, PKOl president Radosław Piesiewicz announced during a press conference that the outstanding obligations had been fully settled that morning.

“The Polish Olympic Committee has paid everything, from A to Z. Both our prizes, which we committed to, and those for our sponsors.”

The money, reportedly about 1.05 million PLN, came from private sponsors, not state-owned companies, and was transferred directly to the athletes' and coaches' bank accounts. Piesiewicz thanked Władimir Siemirunnij, Paweł Wąsek, and two coaches for their patience.

Snub to triple medalist

Conspicuously absent from the thanks was Kacper Tomasiak, the most decorated Polish athlete of the Games with two silver and one bronze medal. Tomasiak's family had earlier publicly criticised PKOl, with his mother Kinga saying Piesiewicz had proposed a seven-year instalment plan to repay the tokens. Tomasiak's father Wojciech confirmed to Interia that the money — 550,000 PLN for his son — did arrive, but lamented the two-month delay and lack of communication.

“Two months of nerves. What hurts the most is that during that time there was no information.”

Confusion over transfers

Shortly after the president's announcement, Paweł Wąsek's sister Katarzyna, who handles his finances, told Eurosport that no payment had been received as of midday. However, later confirmations from several athletes and a coach indicated the transfers had eventually gone through.

Zondacrypto collapse

Zondacrypto, formerly BitBay, signed the sponsorship deal in Monaco in October 2025. On April 17, 2026, the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Katowice opened an investigation into the exchange for large-scale fraud and money laundering, with initial damage estimated at no less than 350 million PLN. Several thousand complaints have been filed and hundreds of victims interviewed. The three Olympic medalists were among those caught by the platform's liquidity collapse.

Earlier partial payments

Athletes who placed 4th to 8th received most of the 280,000 PLN they were owed in late April, backed by another PKOl sponsor, while the medalists had to wait until mid-June for the 1.1 million PLN pool to be assembled from private donors. The resolution closes a scandal that had cast a shadow over Poland's most successful Winter Olympics performance in decades.