Zondacrypto loses access to $350M after seller vanished

On April 23, 2026, Zondacrypto CEO Przemysław Kral published a Bitcoin wallet address and said the exchange does not control the funds in that address. He said the wallet contains 4,503 BTC, roughly $350 million, and that the coins were bought from Sylwester Suszek, the founder of the BitBay exchange, who was reported missing in March 2022.

Kral said he holds documents that transfer legal ownership of the coins to Zondacrypto but that Suszek never delivered the private keys required to move the funds. He wrote, “When Sylwester is supposed to hand over the private keys to that address, according to these documents, he disappears instead.”

After Kral published the wallet address, customers withdrew bitcoin from Zondacrypto in large numbers. Kral estimated those withdrawals reduced the exchange’s bitcoin holdings by about 99%, leaving roughly 1% of its previous BTC reserves.

Kral posted the wallet address to show the funds were not under the exchange’s control and to respond to accusations of misappropriation. He rejected any suggestion of involvement in Suszek’s disappearance and appealed directly to Suszek: “To all those who claim I had anything to do with Sylwester’s disappearance: this is the key argument that I care most about him being found. He may be watching this-I appeal to him to fulfill the agreement.”

Kral said the identified wallet received most of its coins in 2016 and has had little or no on-chain activity for more than a decade. He said he hopes the ongoing criminal investigation into Suszek’s disappearance will allow authorities to locate him and transfer the private keys, or otherwise resolve ownership.

Polish authorities have charged an individual with kidnapping in connection with Suszek’s disappearance. Suszek’s whereabouts have not been confirmed and the investigation is ongoing.

Kral warned the scale of withdrawals placed heavy strain on the company’s bitcoin holdings, writing, “No financial institution could survive this.” He described the situation as a legal and technical impasse: paperwork that documents the purchase exists, but cryptographic control of the assets requires the private keys.

The wallet address remains visible on the Bitcoin blockchain but, without the private keys, the funds cannot be moved. Zondacrypto is managing customer withdrawals and public scrutiny while investigators continue their probe into Suszek’s disappearance.