In the Money , Issue 1675
The Reform UK leader and Clacton MP knew just what the problem was: "The first instinct of the status quo merchants within Labour and the Conservatives is to regulate cryptocurrencies to death. And that is precisely the point. We need change in this country – real change. And if we go on voting for the same old parties, I promise you nothing will change…"
It has since been revealed that Farage was given £5m for "security" by crypto-tycoon and Reform donor Christopher Harborne in 2024. Harborne claims: "I wasn't expecting anything in return except for his safety." Hmm…
Financial Tether
Farage's sugar daddy Harborne is a major shareholder in American stablecoin Tether. Its latest financial report shows just what money for old rope (surely "cutting-edge decentralised finance"? Ed) the business is, and how the likes of Harborne benefit from it.
El Salvador-registered Tether International SA de CV's so-called "attestation" report – for some reason, it has eschewed proper audits – shows that at the end of March the company had issued 183.4bn digital tokens, each bought for (and interchangeable with) one real dollar. At the same time, the company held assets valued at $191.8bn, leaving it with surplus reserves of $8.2bn.
Profit classes
Of its assets, $141.2bn are US treasury bonds or cash deposits with other credit-worthy institutions, while the remaining $50.5bn are precious metals ($19.8bn), loans to other companies ($15.8bn), shares ($3.4bn), Bitcoin ($6.6bn) and other investments ($4.8bn).
With US treasury and corporate bonds yielding above 4 percent over the last year, this portfolio will have produced income for the company of at least $6.5bn. Other profits appear to have been made from financial trading.
Token efforts
Overall figures for the calendar year 2025 show the company paid its shareholders dividends of $10.9bn – more than four times that paid by NatWest bank, for comparison. The previous year Tether companies (then registered in the British Virgin Islands before switching to the authoritarian crypto-friendly state) paid dividends of $11.7bn.
Such profits and returns for a company employing no more than a few hundred people – and almost certainly per employee the most profitable in the world – are possible because Tether token holders get nothing for the real money they pay in, beyond a token and a fair bit of hype.
Whereas even the most avaricious bank retains just a small margin of its income, having to pay the bulk to lenders and depositors, a stablecoin company gets to keep the whole lot.
Harborne again
With Harborne reported in US court papers to own 12 percent of Tether, that would make Tether worth more than $1bn a year to the £22m Reform UK-backer (and £5m "security" provider for Farage). This would put the value of his stake at many billions of dollars.
What's more, as a resident of Thailand, with the name Chakrit Sakunkrit, Harborne would not be taxable on dividends received from offshore companies.
London crawling?
All of which might just explain Farage's comment last year that "London should embrace" Tether and his promise to re-introduce the non-domiciled tax status that would enable Harborne to return to the UK (and thus escape new limits on political donations) while still enjoying his offshore fortunes tax-free. (Harborne also has a stake in blockchain company Ethereum, which his US lawyers said "accounts for a major portion of his net worth".)
Augean stablecoins
While crypto-insiders trouser unimaginable riches, the use to which their products are put remains decidedly dubious.
A report by consultants McKinsey earlier this year found that of about $35tn annual stablecoin activity (using a total of around $200bn tokens in existence), just $390bn, or 1.1 percent, was related to real world transactions such as paying for goods and services.
The use for money laundering and other nefarious activity is conservatively put above $100bn and in 2024 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that Tether used on a blockchain called TRON was "a preferred choice" for "cyberfraud operations and money launderers".
Sterling offer
Stablecoins backed by sterling are far less developed, accounting for less than 0.1 percent of the global picture.
But the government and regulators are keen, the Financial Conduct Authority inviting a number of companies including Revolut bank into a "regulatory sandbox" to create rules of the UK game – and perhaps more cyber-billionaires.
Issue 1675
With Bio-Waste Spreader: "With UK agriculture facing the second major oil price shock in four years (first the war in Ukraine; now closure of the Strait of Hormuz), the increasing fear is that farmers are on the point of drastically scaling back their production of food. With much of the rest of the world seeking ever greater food self-sufficiency, should UK legislators be doing more to encourage domestic food production?..."
With MD: "Should GPs be able to seek advice from a specialist before referring a patient to hospital? When MD trained, you could phone up a consultant and ask for help. Now we have NHS Advice and Guidance, introduced in 2015, where GP requests are submitted electronically and reviewed remotely by a consultant, who advises whether a patient should be added to the waiting list or another course of action is more appropriate. It was an optional service…"
With Dr B Ching: "An obscure letter from a train firm micromanaged by the government doesn't bode well for future relationships between centralised Great British Railways and devolved train services. Transport for Wales – nationalised and mainly subsidised by the Welsh government – wants to start running trains to northern and central Bristol in December. Great Western Railway, which the Department for Transport controls, already runs Bristol-Cardiff trains. Among GWR's objections to TfW's Bristol trains is that the ticket-revenue allocation system would divert money from GWR to TfW…"
With Remote Controller: "ITV and Channel 4, who go big when Number 10 is in play, don't bother when just town hall keys are dangled: they went with Batman Begins and a repeat of Eight Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown while the BBC was launching the 21 hours of Elections 2026. Although listings pages were given the plural title, the studio graphics went with Election, a usage the BBC generally employs when parliamentary seats are being chosen along with a new PM…"
With Old Sparky: "Greg Jackson, founder and boss of super-successful energy supplier Octopus, is welcomed in the corridors of power. So his controversial contribution at a recent industry conference on the security of the electricity grid bears careful consideration. In the context of last year's catastrophic Spanish blackout (during which people died, Eyes passim), he said: ‘I'm not advocating for blackouts, but if you asked Spanish consumers, "Would you accept the odd blackout in return for electricity costs that are 25 percent lower, or don't have [price] spikes?", enough of them would say yes'…"
With Lunchtime O'Boulez: "A muted launch party for this year's Proms: the low-key event was conspicuously low-budget compared with past blowouts. Those who braved tube strikes to attend were miffed to find that, though the invitation asked for ‘dietary requirements', there was no food. ‘Lured on false pretences,' said one leading light of UK music as he joined a swift collective exit after the speeches. Happily, the Proms programme itself looks full, but with fewer big-league overseas orchestras than previously…"
Letter from Ashgabat
From Our Own Correspondent: "Our neighbourhood is in flames and the price of basic goods is rocketing. Happily, Turkmenistan's glorious leaders know just what to do: if you can't deliver peace, build more golf courses. In February our former president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, attempted to gatecrash the inaugural meeting of in Washington of Donald Trump's fatuous ‘Board of Peace'. Alas, even Turkmenistan had not signed up to this increasingly ludicrous international folly. The ‘National Leader of the Turkmen People', once a dentist and still our Arkadag (protector), was turned away. But the trip was not wasted…"
Next issue on sale: 14th May 2026
