Farage knew Putin was using crypto to evade war sanctions – but invested in it anyway

Labour have said that the “questions keep piling up” for Nigel Farage after footage emerged of him admitting he knew Russians used cryptocurrency to cheat Ukraine war sanctions, but invested in the sector anyway.

In an unearthed 2022 interview given just days after Vladimir Putin declared war on Kyiv, Mr Farage credited Russian sanction busting investment for a 15 per cent spike in crypto values.

Despite knowing crypto was aiding the Russian war effort, Mr Farage went on to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in the sector.

A Labour Party spokesperson said “Pandora’s box has been opened when it comes to Farage’s relationship with crypto”, adding that his investment in the sector after he knew Russia was using it to break sanctions “raises serious questions about his moral judgement”.

The row comes as Reform UK have taken two separate donations of £36m from crypto billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo with housing secretary Angela Rayner suggesting a new law could “retrospectively” block Reform accepting the money.

Speaking to financial firm Southbank Investment Research in 2022, Mr Farage explained how crypto exchanges were not banning Russian assets, and that Russians transferring cash into crypto were behind a rally in that market.

The Reform UK leader said: “The crypto markets are not going along with this complete ban on Russian assets. And maybe one of the reasons why crypto, after a big fall, has rallied, I don't know, about 15 per cent this week, something like that, is we're beginning to see Russians transfer assets into crypto wallets, into crypto assets.”

Mr Farage appeared at the Southbank Investment Research event on 4 March 2022 after the firm paid him to publish the “Fortune and Freedom” investment newsletter, which saw him offer market tips to subscribers paying a £199 annual fee.

The issue of Russia using crypto was today raised by Tory shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.

He said: “The idea that we should have loose regulations on crypto is a strange one, given that when I set up the Defending Democracy Task Force as security minister, we followed Russian mafia money going through crypto, going through various European countries to pay for assassinations in the UK or sabotaging Europe.”

Despite acknowledging that Russians was using crypto to get around sanctions, Mr Farage has invested heavily in the crypto market. The Reform UK leader has invested £265,000 in bitcoin treasury firm Stack BTC, run by former Tory chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. Mr Farage was also the public face of Stack’s £2m bitcoin purchase in April 2026, though this did not use his personal funds.

He has also announced that he would liberalise the crypto market if Reform wins power, with the party having already accepted vast sums in donations from those in the sector.

Late last year Mr Farage told a crypto conference “I am your champion”. In October he told a blockchain conference that “people should hold crypto as part of their portfolio”. At another event a month later he admitted “I have got some crypto investments that are long-term".

Mr Farage is under investigation for an undeclared £5m donation from Reform’s biggest donor, Christopher Harborne, who is a cryptocurrency billionaire.

A November 2025 National Crime Agency report found that Tether – the stablecoin Mr Harborne holds a reported 12 per cent stake in – had been used to help the Russian war effort against Ukraine.

Concerns about Mr Farage’s attitude to Russia come after the former leader of Reform in Wales, Nathan Gill, was imprisoned for taking a Russian bribe. In the past, Mr Farage has said that he “admires” President Vladimir Putin.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Pandora’s box has been opened when it comes to Farage’s relationship with crypto. The fact that he welcomed Russians using crypto to break sanctions in the immediate aftermath of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, simply because it boosted the value of crypto investments, raises serious questions about his moral judgement.

“Yet again it looks like he’s backing up his billionaire crypto mates, while potentially undermining Britain’s support for Ukraine. This is just another example of why he’s completely unfit to be prime minister.”

They added: "The questions keep piling up about Farage's finances, but he still can’t answer them.”