Nigel Farage has profited by producing Cameo videos that endorsed or provided support to cryptocurrencies which later collapsed in value.
The videos were discovered by the Guardian within a collection of more than 4,000 clips he has created on the Cameo platform, which allows public figures and celebrities to sell personalised recorded messages to members of the public.
Farage’s use of Cameo has already come under intense scrutiny after it was revealed he had recorded videos supporting a rioter, repeated extremist slogans, and endorsed a neo-Nazi event.
The Reform UK leader has produced videos that appear to have been used to drum up interest in memecoins, with names such as “Stonks Finance”, “NIG Finance”, “Trump Mania” and “Farage coin”.
Memecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is driven largely by social media hype and celebrity backing. If and when the hype runs out, investments can be rendered worthless. Farage has repeatedly endorsed such cryptocurrencies in exchange for as little as £72 from Cameo users who pay him to back their product.
Farage’s embrace of cryptocurrencies is partly ideological. He has said his experience of being “debanked” – when the private bank Coutts, which is owned by NatWest Group, closed his account – turned him into a crypto advocate because he saw it as “free from authoritarian government”. He has called the cryptocurrency bitcoin “the ultimate freedom, the ultimate liberty”.
But the cryptocurrencies Farage has backed on Cameo are for the most part far more obscure than bitcoin. Their backers appear to have been swift to use Farage’s Cameo videos as effective advertisements for their tokens.
On X, the account behind the Stonks Finance coin posted Farage’s video endorsement, which cost £73, alongside a message that said: “$STONKS Finance airdrop. Tomorrow, 2,000 of you will get 150 STONKS each. Are you ready to 🚀🚀🚀with Solana x Mirror? We think @Nigel_Farage knows what’s up 👀.”
The X account behind the Trump Mania token superimposed Farage’s Cameo clip, which cost £97, in front of an American flag and a cartoon depiction of the US president. The caption said: “#TrumpMania continues with a special vote of confidence from @Nigel_Farage.”
Farage charged £133 for a supportive message in which he told the makers of Celsius Network’s CEL token to “fight” for the product, telling them that “if the technology is good enough, it will survive”.
Celsius Network has since gone bankrupt; its founder and former chief executive, Alex Mashinsky, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for securities fraud and commodities fraud. Prosecutors said he had artificially inflated the value of the CEL token.
Farage’s spokesperson said he used the platform “in good faith and without knowledge of the individuals involved beyond what is written for him in the prompt. If individuals or groups subsequently choose to misuse or repurpose a Cameo recording, that is clearly outside Mr Farage’s knowledge or control.”
Farage’s cryptocurrency-related videos, which he has sold for a combined £1,087, do mention some more mainstream currencies. In one video uploaded in May 2021 he said: “Keep the faith. Hold the line. XRP to the moon.” XRP was one of the assets Donald Trump announced in March he would be including in a new US digital asset stockpile. Farage also produced a video saying “I am told you must invest in Dogecoin” – a memecoin favoured by Elon Musk.
A month later, Farage urged viewers to sell Dogecoin and instead invest in Gabecoin, which like Dogecoin is based on an image of a dog.
The Guardian analysed historical price data for the six cryptocurrencies referenced by Farage for which data is available. All of them have lost value since he made a Cameo clip about them.
In a £78 pep talk recorded for the “Farage Crypto Community” in June 2024, Farage seemed philosophical about fluctuations in value. “I know so many of you out there are interested in memecoins. Look, you know, some of these coins do well, some don’t,” he said. “But here’s the point. This is something that matters. You know, Brexit means Brexit, but crypto means freedom from government control. Take it from somebody who was debanked. Crypto’s got a huge future.”
Farage’s backing of cryptocurrencies on Cameo reflects his close ties with the sector. His party, Reform UK, was the first to accept donations in cryptocurrency. Its biggest donor, the tech investor Christopher Harborne, is a major shareholder in the cryptocurrency Tether.
Farage has also said that if he gets into power he will permit taxes to be paid in crypto, create a sovereign wealth fund holding digital assets and slash capital gains tax on crypto investments. Earlier this month, he invested £215,000 in Stack BTC, a crypto business chaired by the former Conservative chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.
Farage’s crypto endorsements on Cameo echo his willingness to promote other financial products, including the gold trader Direct Bullion, which he has been paid £415,500 to advertise since December 2024.
Asked recently by the Financial Times whether such commercial ventures were appropriate for a would-be prime minister, Farage replied: “Bollocks. Everybody [says]: ‘You can’t have a TV show,’ ‘You can’t do Direct Bullion,’ ‘You can’t do Cameo.’ I can do what I want … I skipped university to work in the commodity markets.”
