Will debanking Nigel Farage affect Bitcoin?

[Jet Cash]

For those of you who don't know, Nigel Farage is a significant political figure in the UK and the EU. He is a wealthy banker/ investment manager, and is famous for his Brexit activities. Recently his bank closed his personal and business accounts, and six alternative banks declined to open accounts for him. I understand that he may be considering moving out of the UK to preserve his businesses, and to continue to work for the completion of the Brexit process in the UK.  With the decline and problems of the European Union, it looks as if the oligarchs are working to replace it and expand its sphere under the WEF. This is likely to include the US and the UK in the future. I suspect that the sanctions on Nigel Farage's banking are intended to weaken his political power. However, we know from the experience of the US, that the imposition of sanctions tends to weaken the sanctioner, and to strengthen the sanctioned. One obvious path for Nigel Farage to take is to increase his support for Bitcoin. He has stated publicly that Bitcoin has a great future, and his experiences would tend to emphasise this.

[Nexus9090]

Who knows where this is headed.

Its extremely troubling that you can be effectively excluded from society by a bank. this has serious implications for all of us.

We know that they are pushing toward CBDC, this is a communists wet dream since they'll be able to dictate to you what you earn, your total worth, what you can spend it on and how much you can accumulate.

They would basically have total control over every aspect of your life, if you said or done the wrong thing or something they didnt like or even didnt understand; boom no more money at the push of a button. We've already seen other examples of this with the trucker's in Canada and Paypal blocking useage etc etc.

As for Bitcoin, while it is a decentralised network, it is not an independent network.

It still relies on the presence of ISP's and network providers who lets face it will primarily listen to government legistlation rather than an individual or group of individuals.

If governments decide, they could pull the plug on Bitcoin overnight rendering it useless.

We are heading to a time of communist dictatorship at a frightening rate and worst of all people seem to be oblivious to it.

Its going to come as a hell of a shock for some.

As to what to do about it, only time has that answer.

[Z-tight]

Like Nigel Farage said:

if they can do it to me, they can do it to you too

That is how a censorship and permissioned system works, they are surely trying to force Farage out of the U.K. by unbanking him, he is even accused of receiving money from Russia, but Farage has denied that. BTC cannot help him in this situation, even if he increases his support for BTC, being a big businessman he can't just move all his funds into BTC, he needs to operate using a bank account and clearly he can't do that in the U.K. for now, he will probably leave the U.K for somewhere else. Though this proves that a censorship resistant and permissionless system like BTC is the only way to escape government control.

If governments decide, they could pull the plug on Bitcoin overnight rendering it useless.

I don't know how the government can possibly do that when they do not control BTC, the price of BTC will take a hit temporarily if it is banned by a major world power, but it cannot make BTC useless, nothing can stop BTC from being used for the purpose it was created, borderless payments without a central authority.

[LeGaulois]

What was the "official" reason for closing his accounts and all that?

Does it have to do with Brexit somehow? He is the guy behind the Brexit process in the UK.
The failed process as he admits.
Lot of good things on paper, but they lied to the citizens. I don't think people there see it as a right thing to brexit the EU.
Don't get it wrong, citizens are lucky to move out the EU but how things have been done, it's not right.

Reading again, and seeing

I suspect that the sanctions on Nigel Farage's banking are intended to weaken his political power

it's trully a cheap method  

However, we know from the experience of the US, that the imposition of sanctions tends to weaken the sanctioner, and to strengthen the sanctioned.

According to statistics, sanctions are only useful and effective in 5% of cases.
And countries continue to do so while their citizens are generally more affected than the sanctioned country.

He has stated publicly that Bitcoin has a great future, and his experiences would tend to emphasise this.

For his own pocket yeah sure but I'm not sure if he cares about others. I'm not from UK so that's perhaps why.
He will open bank accounts in Europe or somewhere else. He won't be banned from everywhere in the world.
No matter if the account is in £, €, $, he doesn't care

As for affecting Bitcoin: I doubt that

[avikz]

Not really sure about Nigel Farage's bio and business but from a layman's perspective, if someone is forced out of the banking system, Bitcoin is the currency for him to adopt. That's the true beauty of Bitcoin. And hopefully with his political connections, he will be able to convert his bitcoins to fiat if needed.

I feel good because a politician will be forced to test the power of Bitcoin and may become a powerful voice amongst the policymakers to support its growth.

[Nexus9090]

I don't know how the government can possibly do that when they do not control BTC, the price of BTC will take a hit temporarily if it is banned by a major world power, but it cannot make BTC useless, nothing can stop BTC from being used for the purpose it was created, borderless payments without a central authority.

For them its easy, they legislate that all ISP's and network providers are to block or limit the flow of BTC data on their networks, resulting in the collapse of BTC.

Unless BTC ends up using a totally independent network infrastructure then it is subject to the same controls as everything else. Who will ISP's listen to you, me or the governments?

[SamReomo]

For those of you who don't know, Nigel Farage is a significant political figure in the UK and the EU. He is a wealthy banker/ investment manager, and is famous for his Brexit activities. Recently his bank closed his personal and business accounts, and six alternative banks declined to open accounts for him. I understand that he may be considering moving out of the UK to preserve his businesses, and to continue to work for the completion of the Brexit process in the UK.  With the decline and problems of the European Union, it looks as if the oligarchs are working to replace it and expand its sphere under the WEF. This is likely to include the US and the UK in the future. I suspect that the sanctions on Nigel Farage's banking are intended to weaken his political power. However, we know from the experience of the US, that the imposition of sanctions tends to weaken the sanctioner, and to strengthen the sanctioned. One obvious path for Nigel Farage to take is to increase his support for Bitcoin. He has stated publicly that Bitcoin has a great future, and his experiences would tend to emphasise this.

I know very little about that guy because I don't live in UK and that's why I'm not aware of his political career. But, after reading your post, and doing some research about Nigel Farage, I found out that he was badly attacked by the government as they closed all his personal and business accounts, and I believe that anyone who talks about something that's against the rules of a government, and central banks faces such kind of treatment. Although, I'm still suspicious that if the guy was favoring Brexit process then why they are treating him this way?

I'm pretty sure that he has learned his lesson that even doing everything for banks and governments you will still have to face hard times. I'm also very sure that the guy will give up on the banking system because he didn't received the rewards for his sacrifices, but was punished for the sins that he hasn't done. I'm very sure that Nigel Farage will move to Bitcoin and he will give up on those traditional banking systems for good, and he will be a very helpful figure for the growth of Bitcoin. Let's see what the future holds for us and how many of Nigel Farage like bank account holders will be kicked by the banking system if they believe in the freedom of speech. Only and only Bitcoin is the savior of such people, and I'm pretty sure that one day almost everyone will use Bitcoin.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

With how far bitcoin has gone today I don't think any institution or private organizations can make any form of alternative alterations to the bitcoin network just as at where we are today, bitcoin is not what we can commonly assume to be conquerred or influenced like that when it has it own protocols that guides the network, this makes me remember the little more about that period when bitcoin has the little Challenges of Inscribed ordinals before it got down completely now and as you can all see it's no more a topic of serious discussion anymore, should we now accept an external fluctuate from an ordinary businessman's decision to affect the bitcoin network or it's market price, no.

[DaveF]

If and until the banks respond as to why the accounts were closed it's just his word on what happened.

Was he laundering money? Did he not pay taxes? Did Andy Cecere (CEO of UBS) find out he was sleeping with his wife? Did he lie on some forms?

It's amazing how many times people scream they were targeted and then we find out, no there were many and good legitimate reasons for what happened.

Not saying it's right that things like this happen, but with only 1 side of the story it's not noteworthy. Even here in the US there have been a lot of people that have been 'unbanked' for reasons that I would think are BS but were costing the banks money so they got booted out. And then since we have places like chexsystems here, no other bank would take them.

-Dave

[DooMAD]

Nigel Farage is a corrupt sleazebag, much like most current UK politicians.  I don't think the wider world quite grasp how vile some of our politicians are.  It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he was engaged in some form of criminal activity.

I don't anticipate much impact on Bitcoin.  He might make a lot of noise, but his audience largely consists of low-intellect, easily-manipulated, gullible idiots.  I doubt the average Farage voter could even comprehend crypto, let alone use it.

[Fiatless]

For those of you who don't know, Nigel Farage is a significant political figure in the UK and the EU. He is a wealthy banker/ investment manager, and is famous for his Brexit activities. Recently his bank closed his personal and business accounts, and six alternative banks declined to open accounts for him. I understand that he may be considering moving out of the UK to preserve his businesses, and to continue to work for the completion of the Brexit process in the UK.  With the decline and problems of the European Union, it looks as if the oligarchs are working to replace it and expand its sphere under the WEF. This is likely to include the US and the UK in the future. I suspect that the sanctions on Nigel Farage's banking are intended to weaken his political power. However, we know from the experience of the US, that the imposition of sanctions tends to weaken the sanctioner, and to strengthen the sanctioned. One obvious path for Nigel Farage to take is to increase his support for Bitcoin. He has stated publicly that Bitcoin has a great future, and his experiences would tend to emphasise this.

Nigel Farage's dilemma shows the importance of Bitcoin. It is a clear case of financial persecution because of a person's personal views. The government wants everybody to behave like puppets while they become puppet masters. Nigel even claimed that the government has also extended this bank account closure to his family members. Nigel has been accused before of receiving funds from Russian backed media firm to the tune £550,000 without evidence. And he has claimed that received less than £5000. Very soon people will be with different political views will not survive in the present world.

Where will he move to? Maybe El Salvador. The entire banks in Europe and the US have the same ideology so I wonder which bank will accept him. Leaving Britain might not be the best option because he might still face the same fate in other nations. Turning to bitcoin will be a good option because it can help him keep his funds safe in a decentralized form. Nigel sees Bitcoin as a means to ultimate freedom and has been a supporter of Bitcoin. He might not be a billionaire but he has influence and followership (about1.7 millionn), so he can attract more people to Bitcoin.

[Gyfts]

I've been following Farage for some time and it was only a matter of time before the "regime" found him too credible of a threat and would retaliate against him.

Wouldn't surprise me if all the banks are colluding amongst one another at the directions of the British government to ensure he's left financially isolated. The Canadian truckers had similar experiences during their COVID protests against Trudeau when their accounts were frozen.

Nothing short of narrative control and weaponizing the financial institutions for the government's gain. Will likely have the opposite of the intended effect.

[Jet Cash]

I think that this action may be more of a problem for CBDCs. It seems that Nigel Farage's video received over 90 million views in about 24 hours. Richard Tice discusses the action in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-eRFZ8Lvmk

[MusaMohamed]

However, we know from the experience of the US, that the imposition of sanctions tends to weaken the sanctioner, and to strengthen the sanctioned.

Sure he will become stronger like Bitcoin is stronger and stronger since 2009 after about 500 "Bitcoin is dead".
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/
https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/bitcoin-is-dead/

One obvious path for Nigel Farage to take is to increase his support for Bitcoin. He has stated publicly that Bitcoin has a great future, and his experiences would tend to emphasise this.

Nigel Farage will be like other oligarchs and institutional investors who join this market. They are only parts of market and effects from them can be big or small, but mostly big in short term. We must view their participations in a long term, it will increase capital in this market, increase its adoption and more. Massive effects after a few years, decades.

With Nigel, his networth is about $4M, not too big. I am doubtful about this information and I guess it is bigger than that.

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/nigel-farage-net-worth/

We can imagine effects from Nigel capital by comparing his net worth with other Bitcoin institutional investors. He will not invest all his money to Bitcoin so guess with his 10%, 25% net worth.
https://bitcointreasuries.net/

Maybe he will create more effects from capital to political, not only with capital.

[pooya87]

It depends on what you mean by "affect". It could be an advertisement for bitcoin but with teeny tiny effects considering that nobody outside England really knows this dude or cares about him and what he does or says.
This is such a domestic and political matter that is limited to England where politicians who failed in their plan (ie. Brexit) that was "seriously" set in motion ever since 2014 are facing the consequences of their failure, from Johnson who was kicked out of office with humiliation to this dude here.

[MusaMohamed]

It depends on what you mean by "affect". It could be an advertisement for bitcoin but with teeny tiny effects considering that nobody outside England really knows this dude or cares about him and what he does or says.

I did not know about him too.

This is such a domestic and political matter that is limited to England where politicians who failed in their plan (ie. Brexit) that was "seriously" set in motion ever since 2014 are facing the consequences of their failure, from Johnson who was kicked out of office with humiliation to this dude here.

Political effects are best he can do if the weath figure about him is correct. With only $4M, he will not make any big effect on Bitcoin price if he uses all $4M to invest. He will not use all his money for it so less effect.

With $4M, many Bitcoin whales are richer than Nigel. With >140 bitcoins, a Bitcoin holder is richer than Nigel.
https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html
11,106 addresses have more than 140 bitcoins but less than 11,106 people who are richer than Nigel because one person can own many addresses.
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/addresses?q=balance(14000000000..)

[DooMAD]

I've been following Farage for some time and it was only a matter of time before the "regime" found him too credible of a threat and would retaliate against him.

What threat is he now, though?  His UKIP party is completely irrelevant.  Brexit is all done with now.  There's seemingly not much Farage is trying to accomplish, politically, at the moment.  He's now busy concentrating on securing his own future in Europe and reaping the benefits of that, now that he's finished depriving others of the same opportunities.

[kryptqnick]

While Brexit seriously impacted the political standing of the UK, thus should not affect the stance of the banks toward a politician, unless his finances come from illegal sources or something. I haven't heard of such things happening to anyone before, and I do think it's strange if several banks denied his requests to open bank accounts... However, he does mention a potential reason being a claim that he received funding from Russia Today (RT), but if it's just a claim with no evidence, then banks shouldn't act on that.
The op is right that this guy is pro-Bitcoin already, and yeah, I agree that it's very reasonable to expect him to move his funds into Bitcoin and become a stronger supporter of Bitcoin. However, I think it's also likely that he'll still try to find a bank for some of his funds because there are simply too many places and areas where you can't use Bitcoin directly.

[Z-tight]

Nigel Farage will be like other oligarchs and institutional investors who join this market.

Nigel Farage does not fit in any of this category, if he is going to buy BTC he'll be doing so individually like every other retail investor, but that is just 'if'. I don't live in the U.K., but with the little i've read about this politician i don't think he is pro BTC or anything like that, he may use BTC being censorship resistant as an example to point fingers at the government and accuse them of censorship, but it's not like he is in support of the network, needless to say that you shouldn't even trust what most politicians say. Right now he'll just look for how to solve his problems with the bank or move somewhere else that banks will accept his money.

[DapanasFruit]

I am not so familiar with this UK personality named Nigel Farage but I remember years ago reading something from an online magazine of his role in Brexit. I am amazed that the banking industry is turning its back on him...and definitely it would be so difficult for someone to conduct business without the use of banks most especially that even crypto-based firms are still connected to banks. Yes, he might as well be supporting Bitcoin but that come also with a price as he can be a more target of banks and those in the government not so friendly with the cryptocurrency movement. Anyway, good luck to him and I am suggesting that he move to El Salvador.