A UK lawmaker has asked the financial authorities to investigate Nigel Farage’s promotion of a Bitcoin (BTC) treasury firm, raising concerns about potential market abuse and conflicts of interest due to the politician’s potential ties to the crypto industry.
Farage’s Stack BTC Video Prompts Scrutiny
On Monday, UK Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) CEO, Nikhil Rathi, to investigate Reform UK leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Nigel Farage over his ties to the crypto industry.
In the letter, the lawmaker highlighted Farage’s recent appearance in a promotional video for crypto treasury firm Stack BTC, in which he is also an investor, showing him purchasing roughly £2 million in Bitcoin.
As reported by Bitcoinist, the Reform UK leader bought 37 BTC, worth around $2.7 million, on Monday on behalf of the company, becoming the first sitting British MP and party leader to publicly back Bitcoin, Stack BTC noted.
Despite the triumph for crypto in British Politics, Cooper considers that Farage’s Bitcoin promotion, alongside his repeated support for digital assets, “raises extremely serious questions about potential market abuse, a conflict of interest, and exposure of ordinary people to financial harm.”
The lawmaker highlighted Farage’s campaigns to expand the use of digital assets in the UK, including establishing a Bitcoin reserve fund, reducing capital gains tax on crypto assets from 24% to 10%, and enacting legal safeguards to prevent banks from terminating accounts associated with digital currency transactions.
“Taken together, these facts beg the question whether Mr Farage is promoting cryptocurrencies through his political platform in order to inflate crypto values for his own financial benefit, as well as that of his party and his inner circle of donors,” Cooper argued.
She emphasized that “owning and trading cryptocurrencies is a perfectly legitimate activity when done in line with all relevant rules and regulations.” However, Cooper noted that Farage is an influential figure and no politician “should be exploiting their platform to potentially enrich themselves or specific vested interests.”
Based on this, the lawmaker considers that the FCA needs to establish “if this is another area in which the Reform UK leader is looking to copy the Donald Trump playbook,” citing the US first family’s profitable crypto projects and the conflict-of-interest calls from multiple democratic lawmakers over the past year.
She urged the FCA CEO to investigate whether Farage’s actions amount to “interference in the cryptocurrency market, whether they may constitute attempted market abuse, and whether his public statements may have exposed ordinary people to financial harm.”
UK Moves To Ban Crypto Donations
In the letter, Cooper also listed the $18 million crypto donations that Reform UK received in 2025 as a major concern. Last year, Reform UK became the first British political party to accept Bitcoin donations.
She highlighted the $12.2 million donation from Christopher Harborne, a major investor in Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT. Harborne’s contribution became the largest political donation of its kind in UK history, drawing scrutiny from regulators.
Last month, the UK government announced measures to restrict political donations made in cryptocurrency and limit the amount that British citizens residing abroad can contribute to political parties.
Until recently, British law did not impose any restrictions on donations to political parties if they originated from individuals registered on the UK electoral register or from UK-registered organizations, such as trade unions.
Nonetheless, an independent review into foreign financial influence in British politics concluded that the threat of foreign financial interference is “real, persistent and sustained.” The review recommended stronger investigative and criminal tools to combat interference by foreign states.
With at least two-thirds of Reform UK’s funds reportedly originating from overseas donors, the new restrictions would significantly reduce one of the party’s most lucrative funding sources.
