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Farage Takes 6% Stake in UK Bitcoin Treasury Firm Stack BTC

Reform UK leader and MP Nigel Farage has invested £215,000 in Stack BTC, a micro-cap London company that holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet and plans to acquire small UK businesses. The deal, announced March 9, 2026, gives Farage a 6.31% stake in the Aquis Stock Exchange-listed firm and places him alongside Blockchain.com as a strategic investor.

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Farage purchased 4.3 million shares at 5p each through his holding vehicle Thorn In The Side Ltd, contributing the bulk of a £260,000 fundraising round. Stack BTC trades on the Aquis Stock Exchange (ticker: STAK) under an implied market capitalisation of roughly £3.4 million. New shares are scheduled for admission on 12 March 2026. The company plans to use the proceeds to pursue acquisitions of small UK businesses, build out its Bitcoin treasury, and fund general operations.


Stack BTC's executive chairman is Kwasi Kwarteng, the former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer who held the role for 38 days under Prime Minister Liz Truss in September 2022. His tenure ended after the largest package of unfunded tax cuts in decades triggered a collapse in sterling to a 37-year low and a crisis in UK government bond markets.

Kwarteng and his wife hold a combined 5.43% stake in the company.

Stack BTC disclosed its first Bitcoin purchase only recently: 21 BTC acquired in a single transaction at an average price of $71,594 per coin, representing a total outlay of roughly $1.5 million. With Bitcoin trading around $67,340 to $68,213 on March 9, 2026, the company's treasury position sits at an unrealised loss of approximately 5 to 6 percent, a live metric for any investor evaluating the stock.


Stack BTC is adapting a corporate strategy popularised by Michael Saylor's firm Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which holds 738,731 BTC as of today following its eleventh consecutive weekly purchase. The concept is straightforward: a publicly listed company uses surplus capital to accumulate Bitcoin. Between 170 and 190 publicly traded companies worldwide were holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets by early 2026.

Japan's Metaplanet followed the same template in Asia. Stack BTC represents what appears to be the first notable attempt to bring this model to a micro-cap UK-listed structure, pairing it with an acquisition strategy targeting cash-generating small businesses.

Blockchain.com's participation as a strategic investor is notable. Its involvement adds a dimension of credibility that goes beyond the political profiles of Farage and Kwarteng.


Farage framed his investment in terms of UK competitiveness. "I have long been one of the UK's few political advocates for Bitcoin, recognising the role digital currencies will play in the future of business and finance," he said in a statement. "London and the UK has historically been the centre of world's financial markets, and I believe that we can and should be a major global hub for the crypto industry."

Kwarteng welcomed the investment as consistent with the company's direction: "Nigel's unwavering support for British business and belief that Bitcoin is set to rapidly expand its role in finance is perfectly aligned with the company's ethos."

Not all observers are convinced the execution will match the ambition. Dan Coatsworth, an investment analyst at AJ Bell, offered a measured assessment: "Having grand plans to build a portfolio of high-quality, cash-generative companies is one thing, executing on those plans is another."


The deal carries significance well beyond the UK. The UK-South Asia financial corridor is one of the most active remittance and investment channels in the world. An estimated 1.6 million British-Indian and 1.2 million British-Pakistani residents maintain strong financial ties with their countries of origin, and Indian and Pakistani institutional investors watch London closely for signals about which asset classes are gaining regulatory and political legitimacy.

India already taxes crypto gains at a flat 30 percent rate and applies a 1 percent TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) that has pushed volumes offshore. For South Asian investors assessing whether Bitcoin treasury structures belong in a diversified portfolio, a publicly listed vehicle backed by senior UK political figures adds a reference point.

Across Africa, Nigeria and South Africa consistently rank in the top 10 globally for peer-to-peer Bitcoin volume. For the growing cohort of African fintech founders who look to London as a capital-raising destination, a listed Bitcoin treasury vehicle at a £3.4 million market cap suggests that the structure may be accessible well below blue-chip scale.


The UK's regulatory posture is shifting in parallel. Parliament passed the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 on 4 February, bringing digital assets formally within the Financial Conduct Authority's remit. The full regime is expected to take effect on 25 October 2027, with the authorisation application window opening on 30 September 2026.

The FCA has also lifted its ban on crypto exchange-traded notes for retail investors, with BlackRock, 21Shares, Bitwise, and WisdomTree among the first to list products on the London Stock Exchange. Even so, Consensys has warned that the FCA's approach has already cost the UK ground to the United States as a crypto hub.

Reform UK's formal policy platform includes cutting crypto taxes and establishing a Bitcoin reserve fund. The party has previously received significant donations from crypto-aligned donors, and it dramatically expanded its seat count in the 2024 UK general election, becoming the official opposition in several constituencies. For international readers assessing Farage's political weight, that electoral record is material context. His personal investment aligns with his party's published position rather than contradicting it.

Coatsworth's words point to the question that will ultimately define the venture: whether Stack BTC can execute on its dual acquisition-and-treasury strategy, or whether the ambition outpaces the company's capacity to deliver.