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Kwasi Kwarteng, the former UK chancellor whose infamous “mini” Budget under then-Prime Minister Liz Truss triggered a crisis in the gilts market, is backing the launch of a bitcoin investment company.
Kwarteng, who has kept a relatively low profile since his month-long stint as chancellor in 2022, told the Financial Times he is set to become a non-executive director of Stack Bitcoin Treasury, a so-called crypto treasury vehicle that is set to launch in London by the end of the year.
Kwarteng said that since his restricted period as a former minister came to an end a year ago, he has been keen to be closely involved in commercial opportunities. He also indicated he was not considering a return to politics, having stood down as a Conservative MP in 2024.
“As politicians we talked all the time about enterprise and growth, and it’s quite fun getting involved at the coalface of this industry,” Kwarteng said.
“Crypto is not going to disappear — and given London’s importance and history as a financial centre it’s important that we play a part in this new industry,” he said.
The former chancellor said the company is still completing its work with regulators before a full launch.
A craze for crypto treasury companies has swept financial markets this year, as executives and investors rush to launch vehicles to buy digital asset tokens.
The model involves listed companies raising money to spend on buying bitcoin, with the aim of rapidly accumulating the coins.
More than 100 companies have launched worldwide after a rush this summer, but the share prices of many have collapsed from their initial peaks as the frenzy has waned.
Stack Bitcoin has soft launched with an account on X that at the time of writing has 17 followers. In a promotional video posted online, Kwarteng said bitcoin “is in a class of its own”, highlighting its limited supply and adding that bitcoin is “a far greater preserver of wealth” than sovereign currency.
He added in the video that during his time in politics as “a minister and then subsequently as chancellor of the exchequer” he “was very aware of how extended government expenditure was”.
The Truss and Kwarteng “mini” Budget of September 23 2022 spooked markets with £45bn in unfunded tax cuts, alongside pledging a multibillion pound programme to subsidise gas and electricity bills during the energy crisis.
The “mini” Budget triggered a jump in UK government borrowing costs, a fall in sterling to its weakest-ever level against the US dollar and a crisis in parts of the pension system. Truss and Kwarteng were both forced to step down just over a month after taking office.
The new bitcoin venture appears to be facing teething problems. The phone number on its website did not work, and despite hinting that it would put out a UK regulatory notice on Tuesday, no such notice had appeared by Tuesday afternoon.
Kwarteng, who said he had been working on the project for several months, said he had always aimed to launch by the end of the year.
According to Companies House documents, Stack Bitcoin Treasury was incorporated last month by Paul Withers, an entrepreneur who has previously hired a politician to advertise his products.
He is the founder of precious metals company Direct Bullion, which last year paid Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to appear in its adverts extolling gold’s potential value to retail investors in the UK. Withers did not respond to a request for comment.
Farage has since embraced the crypto industry, telling a recent crypto conference that his support is “a trade that works for both of us”.
Kwarteng, whose new profile on X promoting the company lists him as a “co-founder”, said he was not just doing adverts for Withers and that he would hold equity in a company that would take up “quite a lot of my time”.
“You know with bitcoin, there’s quite a lot of conferences and the like,” Kwarteng said. He said he would continue working for political consultancy Gunster Strategies Worldwide.
He added Withers was a fan of his book, War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures and Debt, that the then-MP published in 2014.
It built on his long-standing interest in currencies, having written his PhD thesis at Cambridge on “Political thought of the recoinage crisis of 1695-97”.
“People know me for my ministerial career and the ‘mini’ Budget, but I’ve had a long interest in currencies,” Kwarteng said.
On Monday he tweeted: “Tomorrow marks the beginning of something I deeply believe in.”