The single biggest buyer of gold last year was not a nation state but a crypto firm you may never have heard of. Tether, the El Salvador-based company behind the world's largest stablecoin, bought more of the precious metal than any other entity, according to European Central Bank data, and stores it in a James Bond-style former Swiss nuclear bunker. It also holds $135bn (£101bn) in US government debt — more than South Korea — while employing just 200 people.
Tether is deeply entangled in the funding of Nigel Farage's Reform party. One of its significant shareholders, Christopher Harborne, gave £9m to Reform last August, the largest party donation in British history, followed by £3m in October and another £3m in January — all declared. He had previously given £5m directly to Farage, a personal gift that went undisclosed and sparked parliamentary investigations before Farage resigned as an MP. Both men insist there were no strings attached.
“Tether, the world's biggest stablecoin, bought more gold than any nation and is linked to Farage's largest donor and a Montenegro network.”
The Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey confirmed that Farage raised the issue of cryptocurrency regulation — specifically stablecoin limits — with him last September. Farage made his views “very clear”, Bailey said, but the “intervention” did not change policy. The governor said he could spot “lobbying” and knew how to discount it. Farage did not raise Tether by name but discussed stablecoin regulation generally. The Reform leader had already told LBC presenter Nick that “Tether is about to be valued as a $500bn company.”
The story reaches beyond Tether to Montenegro, the Balkan nation where key Farage backer George Cottrell — once UKIP deputy treasurer — moved after serving eight months in a US federal prison for money-laundering. Cottrell, arrested on his way back from the 2016 Republican National Convention alongside Farage, went on to funnel hundreds of thousands in donations and undeclared benefits to the man he calls ‘Daddy’. In Montenegro, a country of 650,000 that a former MP described as a “narco-state”, he established a network of companies and crypto projects in the luxury resort of Tivat. According to investigative reporting, Tivat also hosts businesses belonging to Harborne and other key figures from Farage's former Brexit Party, including Gawain Towler and Mehrtash A…
The web of donations, crypto wealth and Balkan connections raises questions about the precise details of Farage's conversations with the Bank and the scope for any benefit to Tether and its shareholders from shifts in policy.