Farage emboldened by Trump’s victory – but whether he can replicate that success remains to be seen

Published

6 months ago

November 9, 2024

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Fresh from Donald Trump’s victory party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, it is an emboldened Nigel Farage who meets us at his latest Reform conference in Newport, South Wales.

“What a win!” He chirps, as the cameras are set up.

To be clear: Nigel Farage is not on the brink of becoming the next British prime minister, but there are undoubtedly parallels between the Reform leader and the US president-elect.

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Both men are trying to tap into disillusioned “left behind” voters, both men are cutting through in rural communities and former industry heartlands. There are red MAGA hats on show at the Reform conference on Friday.

But once the cameras are rolling, and I ask about criticism that he is not spending enough time in his constituency of Clacton, Mr Farage’s mood shifts.

He is undeniably testy. “How much time does Keir Starmer spend in his constituency?” he shoots back, when I ask about missed budget votes while he was in the US.

I remind him he is not yet prime minister.

“I have bought a house in Clacton! What more do you want!”

Behind the scenes though, someone close to Mr Farage tells me he is struggling with the balance of being a constituency MP, leading Reform and pre-agreed (paid) commitments in the US.

“I honour the commitments, they were already there” he tells me, “I’ve taken far less on for next year”.

After our interview, a source close to him said: “Nigel has been to Clacton more than 10 times since being elected. Has kept his promise to have a property in the constituency. Writes a weekly column for the Clacton Gazette (10 weeks in a row). And is having two further visits next week.”

Another interesting, and at times uncomfortable, part of the interview is when I ask about Donald Trump’s position on Ukraine.

Mr Farage tells me there need to be “concessions on both sides”.

When I push on whether that means Ukrainians making territorial concessions he tells me: “I’m not playing your silly game.”

He may well be wary of the backlash he faced in the election campaign for suggesting the West “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards. He did say the war was “of course” President Putin’s fault.

But in truth it is not Mr Farage’s foreign, but his domestic policy that is what has brought people here on Friday.

The NHS, cost of living and immigration are the issues that come up again and again, and people here think the Reform leader has the answers: “He is just different,” one member says.

The Reform party clearly spots an opportunity in Wales. It won 16.9% of the vote share here, and launched its manifesto (or what it calls its “contract”) in Merthyr Tydfil.

Despite winning no seats, they received a greater share of the vote than the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru.

Mr Farage’s team tell me he could win “20-plus” seats at the Senedd elections in 2026.

The elections for the Welsh parliament are part of Reform’s masterplan, a spring board for more coverage and ultimately more power.

After the interviews he bounces up for his seat and heads out to address the conference rally. The thousand or so members here can’t contain their excitement: for all the warm up acts, they’ve come here for one man.

In the confines of the Newport conference hall, Nigel Farage is preaching to the choir. His base has always been solid, whether he can really replicate something similar to Trump’s success is a very different question.

Politics

Solana’s Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack

Published

4 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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<div>Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after .8M hack</div>

Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale has temporarily halted its lending markets after suffering an approximately $5.8 million exploit.

On April 26, a hacker siphoned approximately 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X post.

The exploit only impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses represent around 12% of Loopscale’s total value locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.

Loopscale is “working to resume repayment functionality as soon as possible to mitigate unforeseen liquidations,” its said in an X post.

“Our team is fully mobilized to investigate, recover funds, and ensure users are protected,” Gooneratne said.

Solana's Loopscale pauses lending after $5.8M hack — *Loopscale’s ‘Genesis’ lending vaults. Source: Loopscale*

In the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain smart contracts, blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an April report.

More than 90% of those losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.

Unique DeFi lending model

Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency by directly matching lenders and borrowers.

It also supports specialized lending markets, such as “structured credit, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale said in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Loopscale’s order book model distinguishes it from DeFi lending peers such as Aave that aggregate cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity pools.

Loopscale’s main USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It also supports lending markets for tokens such as JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping strategies for upwards of 40 different token pairs.

The DeFi protocol has approximately $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of 7,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.

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Politics

US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

Published

7 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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US Senator calls for Trump impeachment, cites memecoin dinner

United States Senator Jon Ossoff expressed support for impeaching President Donald Trump during an April 25 town hall, citing the President’s plan to host a private dinner for top Official Trump memecoin holders.

“I mean, I saw just 48 hours ago, he is granting audiences to people who buy his meme coin,” said Ossoff, a Democrat, according to a report by NBC News.

“When the sitting president of the United States is selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him. There is no question that that rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”

Senator Ossoff said he “strongly” supports impeachment proceedings during a town hall in the state of Georgia, where he is running for reelection to the Senate.

The Senator added that an impeachment is unlikely unless the Democratic Party gains control of Congress during the US midterm elections in 2026. Trump’s own Republican Party currently has a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Conflicts of interest

On April 23, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin’s website announced plans for Trump to host an exclusive dinner at his Washington, DC golf club with the top 220 TRUMP holders.

The website subsequently posted a leaderboard tracking top TRUMP wallets and a link to register for the event. The TRUMP token’s price has gained more than 50% since the announcement, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The specific guest list is unclear, but the memecoin’s website states that applicants must pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and cannot bring any additional guests.

On April 25, the team behind TRUMP denied social media rumors that TRUMP holders need at least $300,000 to participate in an upcoming dinner with the president.

“People have been incorrectly quoting #220 on the block explorer as the cutoff. That’s wrong because it includes things like locked tokens, exchanges, market makers, and those who are not participating. Instead, you should only be going off the leaderboard,” they wrote.

Law, Politics, Senate, Donald Trump, trumpcoin, Memecoin — *The TRUMP token jumped on news of the private dinner plans. Source:* *CoinMarketCap*

Legal experts told Cointelegraph that Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, including the TRUMP memecoin and Trump-affiliated decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol World Liberty Financial, raise significant concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

“Within just a couple of days of him taking office, he’s signed a number of executive orders that are significantly going to affect the way that our crypto and digital assets industry works,” Charlyn Ho of law firm Rikka told Cointelegraph in February.

“So if he has a personal pecuniary benefit arising from his own policies, that’s a conflict of interest.”

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Politics

Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Published

10 hours ago

April 26, 2025

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Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain

Crypto investor sentiment has seen a significant recovery from global tariff concerns, but analysts warn that the market’s structural weaknesses may still result in downside momentum during periods of weekend illiquidity.

Risk appetite appeared to return among crypto investors this week after US President Donald Trump adopted a softer tone, saying that import tariffs on Chinese goods may “come down substantially.”

However, the improved investor sentiment “does not guarantee that Bitcoin will avoid volatility over the weekend,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph:

“Sentiment improvements reduce fragility, but they do not eliminate structural risks like thin weekend liquidity.”

“Historically, weekends remain vulnerable to sharp moves — especially when open interest is high and market depth is low,” the analysts said, adding that unexpected macroeconomic news can still increase volatility during low liquidity periods.

Bitcoin (BTC) staged a near 11% recovery during the past week, but its rally has previously been limited by Sunday liquidity dynamics.

Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on Sunday, April 6, despite initially decoupling from the US stock market’s $3.5 trillion drop on April 4 after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s tariffs may affect the economy and raise inflation.

The correction was exacerbated by the lack of weekend liquidity and the fact that Bitcoin was the only large liquid asset available for de-risking, industry watchers told Cointelegraph.

“While improved sentiment creates a more stable foundation, cryptocurrency markets are still susceptible to rapid movements during periods of reduced trading volume,” according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer of RedStone blockchain oracle firm.

“The sentiment recovery provides some cushioning, but traders should remain cautious as weekend liquidity constraints can still amplify price movements regardless of the current market mood,” he told Cointelegraph.

Crypto investors may have “maxed out on tariff-related fears”

Cryptocurrency markets may have priced in the full extent of tariff-related concerns, according to Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen.

“It feels like we’ve maxed out on tariff-related fear,” she told Cointelegraph, adding:

“While many remain uncertain about where things are headed over the next month or so, it also seems like markets were just waiting for the slightest signal that we’re back in the game.”

“Whether the rally is sustainable depends on whether we can break through previous resistance levels, at least in isolation. It could have legs, as markets now seem to believe there’s a ‘Trump put’ under equities, the US dollar and US Treasurys,” Barthere added, warning of more potential volatility amid the upcoming negotiations.

Nansen previously predicted a 70% chance that crypto markets will bottom and start a recovery by June, but highlighted that the timing will depend on the outcome of tariff negotiations.

The tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach a trade agreement with China, which may be the “big prize” for Trump’s administration, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.