In brief
- The Czech government has survived a no-confidence vote following a Bitcoin donation scandal.
- Former Justice Minister Pavel Blazek accepted $45 million from a convicted darknet operator without verifying its origins.
- Amid the fallout, the opposition party leads in polls ahead of national elections in October.
On Wednesday, the Czech Republic's ruling coalition narrowly avoided collapse following a high-profile Bitcoin scandal that triggered a no-confidence vote in parliament two weeks ago.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala's center-right coalition secured 98 votes against the motion on Tuesday, outnumbering 94 members of parliament who voted to bring down the government, a video from the parliament's Chamber of Deputies archive shows.
What began as a Bitcoin donation quietly transferred from a convicted darknet drug trafficker's wallet to a justice minister blew up into a storm and triggered a resignation, a criminal investigation, and nearly toppled the Czech government.
The latest vote was held among 192 members of parliament present, marking the fourth no-confidence challenge since the incumbent coalition took power in 2021.
The vote "went as expected and the government survived," an automated translation of a statement from Fiala on X reads. Fiala claimed the opposition "used the meeting as always – to throw dirt, insults, and lies."

Czech Government Faces No-Confidence Vote Over $45M Bitcoin Scandal
Czech opposition party ANO on Tuesday called for a no-confidence vote in the government following the resignation of Justice Minister Pavel Blazek, amid controversy over a Bitcoin donation from a convicted drug trafficker. The donation, reportedly worth millions of dollars in Bitcoin, was made to the Czech government in March and has triggered widespread condemnation. Decrypt has contacted government officials for comment. Blazek resigned Friday after facing political backlash from an alleged Bi...
The political storm centered on former Justice Minister Pavel Blazek, who accepted 468 Bitcoin, worth over $45 million at the time, from convicted darknet operator Tomas Jirikovsky. The Bitcoin in question had been previously confiscated and returned to Jirikovsky after a legal technicality.
Blazek's justice department later sold the assets, allocating roughly 30% of the proceeds to the state. Critics argue that the move circumvented law enforcement, potentially allowing funds associated with oversight and illicit activity to be laundered.
To this, Fiala responded that he understood "concern in the public" over how the state "may have been abused" for legalizing income from criminal activities, according to a report from local media outlet Brno Daily at the time.
Blazek, a senior member of Fiala's ODS party, stepped down on May 30 under mounting public and political pressure but maintained that he had done nothing illegal.

Czech Central Bank to Consider $7 Billion Bitcoin Reserve: Report
The head of the Czech central bank is about to make a move that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago—he wants to add Bitcoin to the nation's reserves. Czech National Bank (CNB) Governor Aleš Michl will present a proposal this Thursday that could see up to $7 billion of the country's wealth flow into crypto, potentially making it the first Western central bank to hold digital assets. "For the diversification of our assets, Bitcoin seems good," Michl said in an interview with the Finan...
His replacement, Eva Decroix, was sworn in on June 10 and has since ordered an independent audit of the transaction. Decroix pledged transparency and cooperation with ongoing law enforcement investigations.
While the government emerged intact from the no-confidence vote, the scandal has amplified criticism from opposition parties, particularly the populist ANO party led by billionaire Andrej Babis. Party officials accused the Fiala government of eroding public trust and mismanaging crypto oversight.
Ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October 3–4, ANO currently leads 32 to 20 against the Together (SPOLU) coalition, which includes Fiala's ODS party, according to poll data.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair