Poland's retail FX and CFD market expanded at its fastest pace in years during 2025, with the total number of active participants climbing by roughly 50% to approximately 370,000, while aggregate losses across all clients reached a record 2.68 billion zlotys, according to data released by Poland's Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).
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The annual report from the KNF, which covers the full range of OTC derivatives traded through supervised Polish brokerages, shows that the total value of losses last year was nearly four times the total value of profits generated by winning clients. The regulator counted 102,919 active clients who ended the year in profit, compared with 266,818 who recorded a net loss, placing the share of losing traders at more than 72%.
The data builds on a pattern of rapid market expansion seen in previous years, when Poland's active trader count grew by 40% in 2024 alone, already making the country one of the most active retail derivatives markets in Europe.
Polish Residents Bear 1.63B Zloty Hit
Narrowing the lens to Polish residents only, the data shows a somewhat more concentrated picture. KNF counted 186,372 active Polish residents in the market last year, up approximately 59% from the 116,903 recorded in 2024.
Their combined losses totaled 1.63 billion zlotys, a 26% increase from the 1.29 billion zlotys recorded the previous year. Net profits generated by Polish winning traders reached 439.5 million zlotys, up 44% year-on-year, but still less than a third of what losing traders gave back to the market.
“Compared with the previous year, the share of clients who recorded losses increased slightly,” the KNF commented in the report seen by FinanceMagnates.com. “At the same time, the average loss among losing clients declined, while the average profit of profitable clients rose. Overall, the average result of active clients remained negative, although the loss was smaller than in the previous year.”
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The average loss per losing Polish resident fell from 15,749 zlotys in 2024 to 12,162 zlotys in 2025, which the KNF data attributes partly to a wider base of newer, smaller-scale participants entering the market.
Average winnings among profitable Polish traders also declined slightly, from 8,778 zlotys to 8,358 zlotys. The average net result across all active Polish resident clients stood at minus 6,373 zlotys for the year, an improvement from minus 8,442 zlotys in 2024.
"The numbers confirm what we've been seeing in the market for some time," said Marcin Wenus, the Chairman of the Invest Cuffs Foundation. "Poland is now unambiguously one of the largest retail derivatives markets in Europe, and the pace of new entrants is accelerating. But the persistently high share of losing traders, around 72% year after year, shows that participation and profitability are growing at very different speeds."
Retail Clients Remain the Dominant Force
Retail participants accounted for 99.9% of all active clients on Polish-supervised platforms last year and represented 94% of the total nominal transaction value. The KNF noted that its analysis encompasses not just currency pairs but the full spectrum of OTC derivatives, including equity CFDs, commodity contracts, and index products traded via Polish-licensed brokerages.
The explosive growth in total client numbers is consistent with broader trends in the Polish brokerage industry. XTB, the Warsaw-listed fintech and one of Poland's largest retail brokers, added 441,500 new Polish brokerage accounts in 2025, pushing Poland past 2.5 million total registered securities accounts for the first time.
The company's Polish clients also traded 16 billion zlotys worth of securities on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2025, a 76% jump year-on-year.
Loss-to-Profit Ratio Holds at Near 4-to-1
Despite the year-on-year moderation in individual loss sizes, the overall market structure has changed little over the five-year window covered by the KNF report. Between 2021 and 2025, the share of active clients posting a loss has ranged from 70.6% to 79.1%, with 2025 sitting at 72.2%. The absolute scale of losses, however, has grown substantially.
Total losses across all clients stood at 1.16 billion zlotys in 2021 and have more than doubled in four years to 2.68 billion zlotys in 2025.
The competitive dynamics in the Polish brokerage market intensified over the past year, a development that may have contributed to the influx of new, less experienced traders.
Germany's Trade Republic entered Poland in 2025, triggering a broader pricing war among established local brokers, which in turn lowered the cost of entry for retail participants.
KNF Reiterates Risk Warning
The KNF has historically noted that OTC derivatives are high-risk products and should only be used by investors with the relevant knowledge, experience, and an explicit acceptance of the risk of losing all invested capital.
The authority has been tracking this data for years, with the structural imbalance between losers and winners remaining a consistent feature of the retail derivatives landscape across all European markets.
For now, Poland's retail trading community continues to grow faster than the pool of profitable participants within it. Whether the entry of new platforms, better investor education, or regulatory pressure can shift that ratio in the years ahead remains an open question.
