A bitcoin company that Nigel Farage has advertised lost more than 15% of its asset value, prompting finance experts to warn investors against those types of firms.
The Reform UK leader has invested £215,000 in a bitcoin treasury company named Stack BTC. A bitcoin treasury buys the cryptocurrency on behalf of its shareholders, and Stack aims to purchase other companies with the increase in value it gets from holding bitcoin.
However, the company’s investments have fallen 15.48% since its launch in March this year, which is a loss of £565,000.
The Liberal Democrats have called for MPs to be banned from “flogging” specific financial services and products, adding: “People should be cautious about buying shares in Farage. His stock is only heading one way.”
A Reform spokesperson said Farage did not have a brand-ambassador role at Stack BTC but had simply bought shares.
However, the Reform UK leader appeared in a promotional video earlier this year which showed him spending £2m of the company’s money on bitcoin.
The largest shareholder in Stack BTC is Paul Withers, who also owns the gold dealer Direct Bullion. It was recently revealed that this his company paid Farage £270,000 for 12 hours’ work promoting the company.
Withers owns 20.72% of the bitcoin treasury company’s shares, followed by Farage at 5.61%. The pair are the only two with enough shares (5%) to have voting rights. Kwasi Kwarteng, the former Conservative cabinet minister who had a short stint as Liz Truss’s chancellor, is the executive chair of the company and owns 3.55% of its shares.
Farage and his party have previously called for deregulation of cryptocurrency, and proposed a new “bitcoin reserve fund” and allowing HMRC to accept crypto as a payment for taxes.
The Reform UK leader’s interest in crypto has come under scrutiny, with some critics saying it arose shortly after he received a £5m undisclosed gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage is now facing a standards probe for failing to declare this.
Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “Such a steep fall in value shows just how brutally volatile these assets remain and companies that simply stack up bitcoin holdings have no diversification cushion to soften the blow when prices turn.”
She cautioned against investing in companies endorsed by public figures, adding: “It can give an investment a veneer of legitimacy the underlying asset doesn’t deserve. People see a recognisable name putting their own money in and assume it de-risks the investment, but that is often far from the case. If anything, investors should ask harder questions when something is being promoted by a familiar face rather than believing the hype.”
Peter Schiff, the US stockbroker who was called Dr Doom when he correctly predicted the 2008 financial crash, said: “I like Nigel Farage, but I would advise against investing in any bitcoin treasury company.” He added that politicians were promoting these companies because they “are trying to get votes from people who own bitcoin”.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, added: “If you look back at Stack BTC’s history, the company has changed its name multiple times, which could be a red flag. In January, it announced an intention to build a portfolio of high-quality, cash-generative businesses. That sounds impressive, but there is big difference between wanting to do something and achieving it. So far, Stack BTC has nothing to show but a series of ill-timed bitcoin investments.”
Lisa Smart MP, the Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson, said: “It’s a disgrace that whilst the country grapples with the cost of living crisis, Nigel Farage is busy encouraging people to put money into what could be highly risky crypto investments. Liberal Democrats would immediately ban MPs trying to flog specific financial services and products.”
Stack BTC declined to comment.
Source: Original Article
