Key Takeaways
- Reform UK leader Nigel Farage spoke Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas on Thursday.
- Farage announced that the Reform has become the first U.K. political party to accept crypto donations.
- He also said the party would seek a crypto tax cut and push the Bank of England to adopt bitcoin as a reserve asset.
In a speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced that his party would become the first in the U.K. to accept donations in BTC, ETH, SOL and USDC.
Adding to Reform’s bid to become the U.K.’s pro-crypto party, Farage said he would also seek to cut capital gains tax on cryptocurrencies from 24% to 10%.
Cryptocurrency and Political Donations
Reform’s move to accept crypto donations, while novel in the U.K. context, takes a leaf out of the playbook developed by Republican Presidential candidates during the 2024 election cycle.
Before Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vivek Ramaswamy embraced the crypto industry.
For both candidates, incorporating BTC and other cryptocurrencies into their fundraising strategies signaled support for a sector that was under intense pressure from regulators at the time.
Following in their footsteps, once he won the Republican nomination, Donald Trump announced that his campaign would also accept cryptocurrency donations in May 2024.
While Democrats never embraced crypto to the same extent as Republicans, the 2024 election cycle cemented its role in U.S. politics. Eventually, even the super PAC, Future Forward, jumped on the crypto donations bandwagon.
Reform UK Proposes Crypto Tax Cut
For Reform UK, accepting crypto donations is an important way to signal support for the industry. But Farage’s plans for crypto policy go much deeper than symbolic gestures.
In Las Vegas, he announced plans to introduce a “crypto assets and digital finance bill. ”
“We will campaign for this and we’ll put it in place when we win the next general election,” he told the audience.
Reform UK currently only has five members of Parliament in the House of Commons. However, Farage has positioned his party is the natural successor to electorally weakened Conservatives and air to the British right wing post-Brexit.
Most significantly, the proposed bill would reduce the capital gains tax paid on cryptocurrencies from 24% to 10%, Farage said. It would also include several other provisions that would be welcomed by crypto investors.
Bitcoin Central Bank Reserves
Echoing a dream held by pro-crypto politicians the world over, Farage called for a “bitcoin digital reserve in the Bank of England.”
Although El Salvador remains the only country that actively invests in bitcoin as a reserve asset, a growing number of countries are considering some form of crypto reserves.
For example, Donald Trump recently set up a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve that will hold BTC held by U.S. agencies as a long term sovereign asset.
Meanwhile, Bhutan has accumulated BTC reserves through state-operated mining programs. Pakistan also announced plans to form a national bitcoin stockpile.
Farage Addresses Crypto Debanking
Targeting a problem faced by many professionals who earn income from crypto, Farage said Reform UK’s crypto bill would make it illegal for banks to refuse service to customers based on their legitimate cryptocurrency dealings.
“We are going to pass legislation that says that no bank can close your account because you’re trading in legal crypto or digital products,” he said.
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
