Farage in Vegas: Reform leader pledges ‘crypto revolution' for London
Nigel Farage has promised to launch a 'crypto revolution' in Britain and bring cryptocurrencies and digital assets 'in from the cold' at a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas.
Holding up a copy of the 'Cryptocurrency and Digital Finance Bill', which he pledged to enact if his party, Reform UK, won the next election, he said that it would levy a 10 per cent capital gains tax and create a bitcoin digital reserve — a national stockpile of crypto assets — in the Bank of England.
His intervention echoed President Trump's embrace of the cryptocurrency industry in his second term and came after speeches from JD Vance, the vice-president, and Eric and Donald Trump Jr, the president's two eldest sons, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in recent days.
Farage also described his experience of being debanked as 'very scary'
IAN MAULE/GETTY IMAGES
In March, Trump signed an executive order for the creation of two national stockpiles to hold cryptocurrencies. On Thursday, Farage followed suit and told attendees that he would 'make London one of the main trading centres in the world' for the alternative currencies and assets.
Farage also announced that eligible British donors could now make donations to Reform via bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, making the party the first in Britain to do so.
Reform remains consistently ahead in national polls. A recent YouGov voting intention survey for The Times put the party on 29 per cent of the vote, well above the Labour Party on 21 per cent and Conservatives on 19 per cent.
Farage also described his experience of being debanked as 'very scary'. Debanking refers to the practice under which individual or corporate bank accounts are closed by financial institutions for capricious reasons, often without explanation or an ability to appeal.
In 2023, Farage was dropped by NatWest as a customer of its Coutts private banking division and internal documents showed the bank believed his public views 'were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation'. It prompted a free speech row and cost Dame Alison Rose, the NatWest chief executive, her job.
Reflecting on the experience, Farage pledged to protect holders of crypto from being at risk of losing access to traditional financial institutions. '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.
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