Social Media Fuels £221M UK Scam Surge, Industry Wary
UK investment scams hit £221.5M in 2025, up 40%, with social media as key origin point, Wirex CEO says.
Reform UK's proposed tax cuts for crypto investors could save high-rate payers over £100M annually, according to reports. The plan follows £72M donations from…
The tax cut proposals, which would benefit wealthy cryptocurrency investors by hundreds of millions of pounds, emerged just days after Reform UK accepted £72 million from two crypto billionaires.
Under Reform's plan, the capital gains tax rate would reportedly fall to 10% for everyone, cutting it from 24% for high-rate taxpayers and from 18% for basic-rate payers.
HMRC data for 2025 showed that 17,600 crypto investors in the UK realised £1.38 billion in capital gains.
Of that total, £717 million came from just 240 investors who each earned more than £1 million annually.
According to The Independent, Reform's tax reductions would save those 240 high-rate taxpayers over £100 million every year, and roughly five times that over a five-year parliament.
Two tax specialists warned the newspaper that the cuts could harm the UK economy.
Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage are embroiled in a crypto scandal due to support from Tether shareholder Christopher Harborne and former BitMEX executive Ben Delo.
Last weekend, each of the two donors gave £36 million to Reform. Byline Times reported that these contributions may violate the government's limits on overseas donations.
Reform UK pulls crypto bill from website amid Christopher Harborne ‘gift’ scandal
Read more: Nigel Farage accused of undervaluing Christopher Harborne jet loan by $666K
Harborne's most recent contributions bring his total donations to Reform to £61 million. That figure excludes the £5 million “gift” he gave to Farage, which triggered probes by the UK Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
Even as Reform courted crypto voters, it removed its crypto manifesto from its website in July amid the Harborne scandal.
The incidents have also prompted concerns about journalistic ethics.
When The Sunday Times sought comment from Reform about the multimillion-pound donations, the party fed the story to The Telegraph, which then ran a more favorable headline before The Sunday Times could publish its own.
Similarly, after The Guardian contacted Reform about Harborne's £5 million “gift”, Reform also provided the story to The Telegraph.
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Disclaimer: this article comes from third-party media and is provided for reference only. It does not constitute investment advice. Crypto and other financial products carry significant price volatility risk, so please make your own decisions carefully.
UK investment scams hit £221.5M in 2025, up 40%, with social media as key origin point, Wirex CEO says.
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