Nigel Farage, the architect of the UK’s exit from the European Union, says Bitcoin is “the ultimate freedom” and has drawn parallels with his successful Brexit campaign.
A founder member of UKIP – the UK Independence Party – in 1993, Farage served as an MEP in the European Parliament from 1999 and became leader of UKIP in 2006.
Despite being consistently re-elected in his European seat, he helped orchestrate a popular protest against conventional political parties in the UK which ultimately led to the 2016 referendum – with voters opting to leave the EU by 52% to 48%.
Farage then led the Brexit Party – since renamed Reform UK – from 2019 to 2021 in a bid to hold the government to account during the UK’s separation from Europe.
He is now a presenter for GB News.
“I led a political insurgency, I took on the establishment,” he told a panel at Bitcoin Amsterdam.
“I believe in freedom; in liberty; and that the nation-state represents the best way to do this. I’m absolutely proud of campaigning for Brexit, achieving Brexit, and I believe it is the first brick out of the globalist EU world.
“With Bitcoin, we’re seeing a similar type of insurgency: an economic insurgency that is being driven and led by people who are worried about the sheer size and scale of big government.
“Governments cannot come near it: they cannot tell me what I can and cannot do with Bitcoin and, in that sense, it is the ultimate freedom, it is the ultimate liberty.”
He said that the existing financial system “owns and sets the status quo”, adding: “They are very comfortable… and they don’t want anything to come along and disrupt. And I think Bitcoin is seeing that.”
On regulation, he said: “If we work cleverly, with lawmakers…there’s a good chance in America, the UK and perhaps South America too that we can actually get a sensible level of regulation.
“The level of knowledge of those who will be regulating is very, very low. Lawmakers need some real education, and that’s not an easy thing to do.”
Farage said that Central Bank Digital Currencies such as the digital pound and digital dollar, currently in the planning stages, “will take away our economic freedom”.
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Uniswap Labs valued at $1.7bn by new funding
Uniswap Labs has raised $165 million in a Series B funding round to move into mobile and launch NFT projects.
The round into the decentralised exchange was led by Polychain Capital with participation from long-time investors a16z crypto, Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant.
“When I built the Uniswap Protocol in 2018, it was an experiment to see if I could create something that fully embodied the values of Ethereum: transparent, secure, and accessible,” said founder Hayden Adams.
“Since then, it has grown and evolved in ways I never imagined. It’s supported $1.2 trillion in trading volume to date and has become critical public infrastructure for exchanging digital value.
“As Uniswap Labs focuses on products, a much broader ecosystem continues to grow and thrive beyond what any one company can do on their own.
“As an example, the governance community recently voted to create the Uniswap Foundation, which will contribute to the Protocol’s decentralised development and give at least $60 million in grants to community projects over the next few years.”
The latest funding values the company at almost $1.7 billion.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Japanese videogames giant Konami is recruiting a “wide range of talent” to construct and service future metaverse and Web3 platforms.
CoinShares has released an experimental AI bot that attempts to calculate a fair price for NFTs.
Dubai-based VUZ has raised $20m in Series B funding for its extended reality and metaverse social app. The round was backed by Caruso Ventures, Vision VC Fund, SRMG, Elbert Capital, Yasta Partners, Faith Capital, Panthera Capital, Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF), Webit Investment Network (WIN), and e& capital.
Singapore-based crypto investment platform Pillow has raised $18m in Series A funding co-led by Accel, Quona capital, Elevation Capital and Jump Capital.
Fabric Systems has raised $13m in seed funding to build a liquid-cooled bitcoin miner and a computer processor for advanced cryptographic algorithms such as zero-knowledge proofs. The round included Metaplanet, Blockchain.com and 8090 Partners.
BlockTower has launched a $150m fund to invest in blockchain infrastructure and DeFi.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 21,200 coins is at $942 billion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 2.9% increase in the last 24 hours.
For round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments, click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.