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Nigel Farage has invested in Kwasi Kwarteng’s bitcoin treasury company, in the first public funding of a crypto business by the Reform UK leader who has sought to strengthen ties with the nascent industry.
The MP has invested £215,000 in Stack BTC Plc, the crypto-holding business led by the former Conservative chancellor, the company said on Monday.
Stack Bitcoin is one of hundreds of companies that last year joined the global rush to buy and hold bitcoin. Kwarteng, a former MP who is best known for his month-long spell as chancellor during which the mini-budget led to a crisis in the gilts market, is the company’s executive chair.
Farage has courted the UK’s crypto sector and positioned himself as its saviour, vowing to champion Britain’s digital assets industry.
In May last year, his party said it would start accepting donations in cryptocurrencies, while also announcing that a Reform government would allow crypto to be used to pay taxes and set up a sovereign wealth fund comprised of crypto assets.
Farage’s highly publicised endorsement of cryptocurrencies was widely seen as an effort to style himself in the image of US President Donald Trump in a field where there are few high-profile figureheads in Britain.
Senior party officials saw the move as a way of potentially attracting new and younger voters, as well as tapping into a wider pool of potential donors.
Farage’s investment was made through his media company, Thorn In The Side Ltd. The personal investment is likely to attract scrutiny from politicians in Westminster, some of whom have called for crypto donations to be banned in politics.
Kwarteng welcomed Farage’s decision to become a “strategic investor”.
“Nigel’s unwavering support for British business and belief that bitcoin is set to rapidly expand its role in finance is perfectly aligned with the company’s ethos and business plans,” he said.
Farage has railed against UK politicians and regulators’ aversion to crypto, and has previously said he would occasionally “have a bit of fun” with digital asset trading.
Last week, Reform gained its second big donation from crypto investor Christopher Harborne, taking the total he gave last year to £12mn.
Kwarteng has a 5.4 per cent shareholding in the company, which includes shares owned by his wife. Stack’s biggest shareholder is Paul Withers, chief executive of Direct Bullion, who has previously paid Farage hundreds of thousands of pounds for advertising the gold dealer.
Hundreds of companies around the world last year rushed to buy cryptocurrencies including bitcoin in a bid to boost their share prices. Investor interest in the digital asset treasury sector has since faded, as the price of bitcoin has slumped by almost 40 per cent over the past six months to under $70,000.
Stack owns 21 bitcoin, worth just over £1mn and is listed on the UK’s small-cap Aquis exchange. The company is valued at £3.85mn and its shares have fallen by almost a third since it revealed in early November that it would hoard bitcoin.
British crypto exchange Blockchain.com also invested in Stack, which said the new investors would help it grow by buying smaller UK businesses.