Farage fronts £2m bitcoin purchase despite price tumble
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has fronted a £2m purchase of bitcoin by the Kwasi Kwarteng-led crypto company Stack BTC despite the cryptocurrency’s price tumbling over recent months.
Farage was filmed in a promotional video for the crypto reserves firm buying around £2m of Bitcoin, with the business stating that the political leader was the first sitting MP to “publicly buy bitcoin”.
The SW1 disruptor stood alongside Stack BTC chairman Kwasi Kwarteng, who briefly served as UK chancellor during Liz Truss’ short premiership.
In the choreographed video, Kwarteng completed Farage’s sentence, which said: “Stack cannot be a bitcoin treasury unless we buy bitcoin.”
Stack BTC is an Aquis-listed company based in the UK that builds up bitcoin reserves for shareholders.
Farage’s crypto links
Farage became a stakeholder in the crypto company through his investment totalling £215,000. He is also a keen supporter of blockchain technology, urging the Bank of England to ease regulation on the industry.
Some of Reform UK’s donors are also large investors in crypto businesses. The Thai-based Christopher Harborne, who has given over £12m to Reform UK, holds shares in stablecoin firm Tether. The billionaire Ben Delo, who has given £4m and was pardoned by President Trump last year following a conviction under the Banking Secrecy Act in the US, is the co-founder of BitMEX.
Stack BTC now holds 68 bitcoins, which is worth around £3.6m altogether.
The price of bitcoin against the US dollar has tumbled over the last year, falling by nearly 19 per cent in the last year.
Over a six-period period, the drop has been more brutal at around 28 per cent.
The largest investor in Stack BTC is Paul Withers, the co-founder of the metals dealer Direct Bullion, which has sponsored Reform UK events.
Labour Party chair Anna Turley accused Farage of “hyping up a former Tory chancellor who crashed the economy” and attempting to “line his own pockets”.
“While Labour is working to clear up the mess the Tories left, Nigel Farage is cosying up to the architect of Liz Truss‘s catastrophic mini-budget,” Turley said.
“It tells you everything you need to know about whose side he’s on.”
Reform UK blasted
Labour officials also hit out at Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice after a Sunday Times report said he broke the law by failing to pay tax on dividends for one of his companies.
Turley called on HMRC to investigate Tice as it was a “major scandal which goes to the heart of Tice’s integrity and credibility”.
Reform UK officials have hit back at Labour’s attacks and said unpaid tax was a “minor administrative error”.
Home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the issue was a “non-story”.