As Liz Truss prepared to make a U-turn on her mini-budget in October 2022,Nigel Faragediscussed the economic instability on his GB News show. But he was not broadcasting from the channel’s studios in Paddington. Instead, Farage was speaking from a bitcoin conference in Amsterdam.
“With inflation forecast to perhaps get up to 20%, with increasing distrust of fiat currencies, people are looking for alternatives … Are you ready for bitcoin?” he said in his opening remarks.
On Thursday, as an MP and not a broadcaster, Farage again spoke at a bitcoin conference, this time in Las Vegas. Though the venue had changed, the organisers were the same.
In Vegas, Farage outlined Reform’s policy on cryptocurrencies, presenting details of a bill to make London a global “crypto powerhouse” that the party would bring in from government.And in a final flourish, he announced the party had become the first to accept donations in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from eligible UK donors.
So how did a former trader who made his money in the altogether more tangible commodity of metals become a crypto convert? His journey appears to have started during the pandemic. Cryptocurrency was “the subject everyone’s talking about”, Farage said in a video about bitcoinfor Fortune and Freedom, an investment newsletter he launched in October 2020, published by Southbank Research.
In April 2022, Farage appeared in a video titled “New Money, New Rules” from Southbank Research, offering“the truth about crypto”, in which he said he had bought cryptocurrencies.
He said: “Five years ago, cryptocurrencies were pure speculation. Yet now, making crypto a part of your plans just makes sense, doesn’t it? I have. A short while ago, I took a small amount of my money, I opened an account, I invested in cryptocurrency. It wasn’t difficult, but I’m glad I did it and I’m not alone.”
Connecting the messaging of libertarian Euroscepticism to his support for cryptocurrencies, he explained how in 2020 he had taken on “a new mission outside of politics to help people take control of their finances” through a separate newsletter, UK Independent Wealth, and was selling first-year subscriptions for £79.
In Amsterdam, as well as hosting his GB News show, Farage spoke on a panel at the conference. He called crypto an “economic insurgency driven and led by people worried about the size and scale of big government”.He saidbitcoin was “the ultimate freedom, the ultimate liberty”.
Farage has also cited hisdebanking by CouttsandNatWestin 2023 as a motivation for his adoption of the alternative currencies.
Weeks before the general election last year, Faragesaid: “The idea that you can be debanked, the idea that with increased regulation the banks can control how you spend your money, whether you even have access to your money, again, there’s quite a feeling here amongst the whole crypto community that this is a form of individual sovereignty.”
In June 2024, days after he announced he would stand in the election, a meme coin – a type of cryptocurrency that seeks to use viral success and is typically hugely volatile – called “$FARAGE” was launched. Within two weeks, aCameo video of Faragecame out in which he gave “a big shout out to the crypto community that exists and is being ignored in this general election”.
He continued: “So many of you out there are interested in meme coins, so many other things – look, some of these coins do well, some don’t. But here’s the point. This is something that matters. Brexit means Brexit, but crypto means freedom from government control. Take it from somebody who was debanked. Crypto’s got a huge future, and I will be talking more about the crypto community before the election on July 4.”
In asecond Cameo video, Farage said: “I now learn there is a Farage coin which is gathering support from the Reform UK cryptocurrency community, something that Rishi [Sunak] and Keir [Starmer] just will not touch with a barge pole. They don’t get it. But then again, they don’t believe in freedom the way the crypto community does. So I hope that Farage coin goes to the moon. It’s speculative, I’m not telling people to invest their life savings in it. But you never, ever know.”
The coin has lost more than 90% of its value since then. There is no suggestion the currency is connected to Farage. But posts from an X account that claims to be linked to the $FARAGE coinpromisesthat they “will be the first ever token to donate to a UK political party”, pledging donations to Reform once the overall value of the coin exceeds certain thresholds.
Not all of Farage’s Cameo videos are as coherent on cryptocurrencies. One videofrom June 2021is laden with references to two competing meme coins, as Farage implored from a script: “Gabe Gabe Gabe, ape for Gabe.”
He added: “Good luck with it all.”