Zonda CEO: Missing Founder Holds 4,500 BTC; Active Nov 2025

Zonda’s CEO, Przemysław Kral, says the exchange’s missing founder, Sylwester Suszek, holds the private keys to a wallet containing roughly 4,500 bitcoin, valued at about $336 million at current prices. Kral said Suszek did not hand over the keys and that the wallet was last used in November 2025. A planned transfer from Suszek to the company did not take place, Kral added.

Kral posted a video on X in which he described a surge in customer withdrawal requests in early April that followed negative media coverage. He said Zonda normally handles about 100,000 withdrawal requests a year but received more than 25,000 requests in the days immediately before and after April 6, when an independent firm, Recoveris, examined the exchange’s hot wallets. Kral said an independent accountant’s audit issued an overall positive report and that the company is solvent.

Polish regulators have opened a probe into Zonda. Public claims that the exchange is facing bankruptcy have circulated; Kral denied any misappropriation of customer funds and announced plans for legal action. The CEO told customers the firm intends to meet its obligations. “We will take legal action and meet our obligations to customers,” he said in the video.

Suszek founded the exchange when it operated as BitBay and remained a public figure after it rebranded to Zonda in 2021. He has been missing since March 10, 2022, when he left his home for an appointment in Czeladź, a town in southern Poland. Prosecutors say his last known contact was at 3:08 p.m. at a fuel depot owned by Marian Wszolek, a lawyer and business associate whom authorities describe as linked to organized crime and large-scale VAT fraud. Suszek’s family has alleged a hostile takeover of the company, said they fear he was kidnapped and possibly killed, and reported that his sister has received threats.

Kral has said the company’s financial statement shows it holds more than 4,500 bitcoin in assets. At the same time, his assertion that Suszek did not transfer the wallet keys indicates that Zonda may not have access to the private keys for some or all of those coins.

The dispute has reached Polish politics. Internal security reports cited payments tied to Kral and Zonda-related companies routed to foundations connected with public figures. Konfederacja MP Przemysław Wipler defended a roughly €70,000 transaction as payment for analysis services and demanded an apology from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, threatening legal action for defamation.

Polish authorities continue to treat Suszek’s disappearance as an open missing-person investigation. Regulators’ probes and ongoing legal and accounting reviews are expected to shape whether and how Zonda can satisfy withdrawal requests tied to the bitcoin holdings at the center of the dispute.