Czech Government Survives Ousting by Just 7 Votes Amid Bitcoin Scandal Fallout
Politics meets crypto chaos as Prague's leadership clings to power.
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The Margin of Survival
A razor-thin margin of seven parliamentary votes prevented the collapse of the Czech coalition government today after opposition parties seized on a Bitcoin-related corruption scandal. The failed no-confidence motion exposes deepening fractures in Europe’s crypto regulatory landscape.
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Unpacking the Fallout
While details remain scarce, sources confirm the scandal involves alleged misuse of public funds for undisclosed Bitcoin investments—proving once again that when politicians dabble in crypto, taxpayers usually foot the bill. The episode highlights growing tensions between progressive crypto adoption and traditional financial oversight.
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What Comes Next?
With the government wounded but intact, expect tighter cryptocurrency oversight proposals within weeks. Because nothing inspires legislative action quite like politicians nearly losing their jobs over digital gold rushes.
Source: Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Twitter
Notably, this is not the first such motion over the past four years. It’s the fourth since this four-party coalition government took leadership.
Moreover, the next parliamentary election is set for early October, with the opposition likely to win.
Earlier this year, Justice Minister Pavel Blažek accepted a large donation in BTC, which he sold for about $45.8 million in March. In May, the opposition raised concerns over the source of the donation, and by the end of the month, Blažek resigned.
The main opposition centrist ANO (YES) movement, with billionaire Andrej Babiš at the helm, requested a vote of no-confidence, looking to oust the current government.
Subsequently, Eva Decroix, deputy chair of the Civic Democratic Party, has been appointed as the country’s new Minister of Justice.
So, How is BTC Involved?
In March 2025, a lawyer representing Tomas Jirikovsky, a convicted criminal, reportedly approached Blažek, saying that the client WOULD donate 30% of his BTC stash to the ministry.
Before his arrest, Jirikovsky had operated the. In 2017, he went to prison for embezzlement, drug trafficking, and illegal trading of weapons. Police confiscated his wallet containing BTC but returned it after his release in 2021.
The opposition party raised concerns over the origin of this donated BTC, since Blažek did not do any checks. But Blažek denied knowledge of wrongdoing. “I have no way to investigate the matter, and I wasn’t interested so many years after the case,” he said. Blažek also claimed that courts had not proven that the BTC came from criminal activity.
During the trial, the court suspected that the coins came from Nucleus, a dark web marketplace that reportedly shut its doors the day after Jirikovsky’s arrest.
Furthermore, BTC market monitors noted that a portion of the Nucleus-linked BTC, dormant since 2016, moved to new wallets in March.
Jirikovsky claimed that he got to keep the BTC because he had obtained it legally. Blažek claimed he hadn’t made any promises in return for the donation.
You may also like: Czech Republic Appoints New Minister Following $45M bitcoin Scandal Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Tuesday appointed Eva Decroix as the country’s new justice minister, replacing Pavel Blažek after a weeks-long controversy over a $45m Bitcoin donation from a convicted criminal. The move follows a growing political storm surrounding Blažek, who accepted a Bitcoin payment on behalf of the state from Tomáš Jirčovský, a man previously jailed for running the now-defunct Silk Road-style platform Sheep Marketplace. Jirčovský was convicted in 2017...