Zonda Faces Withdrawal Crisis, Holding 4,503 BTC in Cold Wallet Whose Private Keys Cannot Be Accessed Due to Former CEO Going Missing

BlockBeats News, April 16th - According to Cointelegraph, Przemysław Kral, CEO of the Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zonda, released a video statement on Thursday, revealing for the first time a cold wallet address holding approximately 4,503 Bitcoins (current market value around $334 million), with the wallet's last on-chain transaction recorded in November 2025. Kral stated that the wallet's private key was never transferred during a company handover, which was supposed to be conducted by Zonda's founder and former CEO, Sylwester Suszek, who has been missing since March 2022. He denied embezzlement allegations and said, "This is the main reason why I am urgently seeking to find Sylwester."

Against this disclosure backdrop, Zonda has been embroiled in a series of controversies—reports of a Polish authority investigation have surfaced in local media, and based on the significant decrease in the exchange's hot wallet balance, the blockchain analysis platform Recoveris released an analysis suggesting that Zonda may be insolvent. On April 6th, Kral denied bankruptcy allegations, insisting that the platform holds over 4,500 Bitcoins and remains fully solvent.

Regarding withdrawal pressure, Kral mentioned that Zonda usually processes around 100,000 withdrawal requests per year. However, in just a few hours to days around April 6th, they received over 25,000 requests, which he attributed to a panic withdrawal wave triggered by negative media coverage. He stated that the company plans to take legal action against false accusations and pledged to fulfill its withdrawal obligations to users. Polish MP Tomasz Mentzen commented on X, suggesting that Zonda may have permanently lost access to the cold wallet due to Suszek's disappearance. However, Kral did not explicitly state in the statement that the funds have been lost.