As the FT noted in an article published late yesterday afternoon:
Nigel Farage has pitched himself as the British crypto sector's saviour, saying “I am your champion”, as the Reform UK leader tries to emulate President Donald Trump in building election support from digital asset investors.
In remarks at the Digital Asset Summit in London, Farage touted his plans to create a state-owned bitcoin reserve and his proposed crypto bill, which would slash the rate of capital gains tax and allow payment of taxes with crypto.
I have continuously warned of the dangers of crypto.
Cryptocurrency is not an asset. There is no substance to it, and something cannot be an asset without a basis for value, but it has none. In crypto, the only value proposition is that it is of worth so long as more people keep buying it in greater amounts, without ever knowing why. That makes it a Ponzi scheme.
Almost no cryptocurrency is used as currency. To pretend that it has real-world utility is absurd.
To exempt it from taxes on speculative trading is, therefore, just wrong in principle. It is only about speculative trading.
And using the state to buy it is just a way to find a new source of support for the Ponzi arrangement until it all goes bust.
As Jemima Kelly at FT Alphaville said recently:
Crypto itself is the Wild West of finance, where exploiting regulatory loopholes and bypassing national controls is the name of the game. … Crypto has never been about innovation, but about getting away with things you would not otherwise be able to. … Murky dealings aren't the bug, they're the whole point.
The use of cryptocurrency for illicit purposes is, then, hardwired into the system: that is its purpose.
And Farage supports this, champions it, and wants to use the public purse to fund it, knowing full well that the money in question will almost certainly be lost.
That says all we need to know about Farage and his attitude to governance, corruption and the right usage of funds.
The man is rotten to his core, in my opinion, since he clearly has no idea whatsoever what public duty entails when all he ever does is promote his own interests. Boris Johnson was in the same mould, but surely we have learned our lesson by now? Haven't we had enough of those who set out to fail us?
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
If crypto is the “Wild West of finance”, then Fa***e is Billy the Kid. Of course he likes crypto, when it looks dodgy people buy gold, and guess which grifting ex City metal trader has gold interests and lobbies for gold speculators?
I see Reform UK Ltd have just torn up their UK business plan (pretending to be their 2024 manifesto)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/13/eform-uk-abandoning-manifesto-pledge-tax-cuts-deputy-leader-admits
They seem to be mimicing Starmer’s Labour – make promises, get votes, dump the promises. I suspect the reason is that Billy the Kid Fa***e wasn’t enjoying being questioned on it.
Now he is free to wander about fantasising about a new fascist dawn, while being vague about everything except immigration.
But it does seem as if there are a lot of stories about economics at present, what with the “budget” approaching. (The quotes are deliberate). Nearly all the stories are based on the household analogy, but I detect a note of scepticism creeping in – as they realise that increased state investment is unavoidable and state ownership possibly inevitable (railways? Water?).
But they dare not openly mention MMT. Not yet. But Polanski does (despite the best efforts of Fiona Bruce). Murphy does. And it IS having impact.
There is a tiny leak in the neoliberal dyke, and the MMT water is trickling through.
KUTGW!
It’s a good time to plug away about sovereign states, central banks, fiat currencies, the crying need for state investment, and the failure of private finance.
People are interested in water, sewage, railways and the NHS. Do they really want the NHS run like Thames Water or Southern/Northern Rail?
Anyone remember Sid and British Gas?
Yes, and thanks
Try telling people that Farage is a conman. Very difficult, even when armed with facts. I have encountered this locally and in Wales; the bubble is hopefully about to burst in Wales despite massive bot campaigns about the 20 mph limit, abolish Senedd etc. So many chant “Farage is for the people”, and cite immigration as their sole policy item. Shows the power of the media in promoting this shyster.
I agree with our exasperation on this issue.
Is it the the British disease to fall for toffs like Farage? Sadly, this maybe the case. These people putting their faith in Farage are suckers, no matter how desperate they might be. We still fall for a plummy accent because of our own lack of belief in who we are leading us to aspire to get the plummy accent. That is the curse of being British – a sense of class inferiority, and allows to be ruled by awful human beings.
But let us not forget what else is going on here.
Money. Lots of money.
I heard that Stephen Yaxley Lennon (you should know his common name by now) was stopped at a border crossing in a ……Bentley? WTF? So, who is supporting Yaxley-Lennon financially – enabling him to go holidays and hang out in hotels and drive a Bentley?
Money. Lots of money?
And who from? The same rich who are shafting the country and democracy, that’s who.
Watching BBCs Storyville documentary about the U.S. far right’s interference in libraries last night on iPlayer and it is truly shocking how self-opinionated millionaires are getting U.S. libraries to remove books about LGB&T, black history and ‘woke’ issues.
Essentially then, this how you lose a democracy: to the unaccountable power of wealth.
And failing ‘us’ is not in question. They are succeeding for themselves – that is the answer. That is the challenge. Wealth needs to be put in it place.
Tax them, take the money off them.
Jemima Kelly at the FT has been consistently robust on crypto….. and Louis Ashworth (FT Alphaville), too – but with some great memes and humour.
And Isabella before her
Of course the Far-Right would be involved in Crypto. Conspiratorial beliefs make you vulnerable to scams, and the majority of Far Right leaders are on some sort of grift, with their followers being their primary victims. Crypto just seems like a continuation of Multi Level Marketing (MLM) schemes which were always grounded in far-right movements. They used the same conservative, anti government mailing lists to target suckers. The Heritage Foundation was founded on money made from MLMs. It’s scams all the way down.
The only reason fiat currencies and gold are worth anything is because of consensus. How can a piece of paper or piece of metal be worth anything but that? If enough people agree to use Bitcoin as a currency then it will be. Trillions of dollars are already in digital currencies. Governments and 100’s of large companies around the world are buying btc. Blackrock being one of the biggest, and you say it’s wrong. Don’t make your opinion to be a truth. It’s just an opinion.
No one will use Bitcoin while they have to pay their tax in other currencies.
No responsible government wanting macroeconomic control will ever let taxes be paid in crypto.
And yes, I am right and they are wrong.
The man’s a spiv, quite simply.
If your idea of a great prime minister is the pub bore, he’s your man…