How Europe’s Right Wing Weaponized Crypto After Trump’s Election
Since US President Donald Trump positioned crypto as a central pillar of his marketing campaign, political leaders throughout Europe have begun adopting the same strategy, in search of to draw crypto-aligned voters because the digital belongings business continues to increase.
Right-wing events, specifically, have leaned into this technique. Bitcoin’s non-sovereign nature and its emphasis on restricted state intervention have made crypto particularly interesting to conservative and libertarian leaders.
However, its potential to obscure monetary flows has additionally made opposition leaders cautious.
Trump’s Crypto Playbook Goes Global
During his 2024 marketing campaign, Trump set a precedent by making crypto an indispensable a part of his presidential agenda. The transfer was strategic.
Digital asset possession has steadily elevated throughout the United States, although its development has been largely constrained by laws that many within the business seen as stifling innovation.
At the identical time, the sector proved extremely profitable, with crypto firms prepared to channel tens of millions of {dollars} into presidential candidates who brazenly supported digital belongings.
Then, Trump received. Soon sufficient, political leaders from different areas – notably Europe – raised their gaze and embraced the same playbook.
The United Kingdom’s Reform Party, led by Nigel Farage, has been the most explicit example of this pivot.
Reform UK Opens Doors to Crypto
In May 2025, Reform turned the primary political celebration within the UK to accept crypto donations. Farage introduced it throughout an look on the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, the place he was launched as a presidential candidate.
During his speech, Farage talked about that Reform deliberate on introducing a cryptoassets and digital finance invoice. The laws would seek to limit capital gains taxes on crypto to 10%.
Soon, donations from crypto buyers started to move.
In December, reviews emerged that cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur Christopher Harborne had donated £9 million to the celebration. Harborne, a serious investor in stablecoin issuer Tether, made the contribution in money slightly than in crypto.
Strong hyperlinks between Farage and Trump’s inside circle additionally started to emerge.
Byline Times lately reported that, final October, Farage disclosed a £30,000 cost for a talking engagement from Blockworks Inc., a number one crypto knowledge and data platform with hyperlinks to pro-Trump crypto funding circles.
The media outlet additionally reported that Farage had acquired funds lengthy earlier than asserting his presidential candidacy.
According to journalist Nafeez Ahmed, David Bailey, chief govt of BTC Inc. and a senior cryptocurrency advisor to Trump, paid Farage a talking charge by way of BTC Inc. Months later, the Reform chief unveiled his pro-crypto coverage platform.
Though much less emphatically, a number of of the UK’s neighboring nations have additionally begun to regulate their positions on the digital belongings business.
France’s Far Right Rewrites Stance on Bitcoin
Since the mid-2010s, France’s far-right has persistently ranked among the many main contenders in presidential elections, although it has but to translate that momentum into presidential management.
Marine Le Pen, chief of the National Rally celebration, has been essentially the most outstanding determine on France’s far proper. Her stance on Bitcoin and the broader crypto sector has shifted over time.
In 2016, she pledged to ban digital currencies, together with Bitcoin. She argued they have been the product of an alliance between what she described because the “ruling elite” and the highly effective Wall Street funding banking foyer.
In 2022, Le Pen shifted her place, supporting plans to regulate digital assets. By 2025, she proposed that France ought to create them.
Last March, Le Pen visited the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant, the place she backed using surplus reactor electricity to mine Bitcoin.
Members of Reconquête, one other far-right celebration in France, additionally surfaced the concept of creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve earlier than the European Parliament.
According to Le Monde, the laws was nearly a carbon copy of the manager order Trump signed in March of final 12 months.
The rising political consideration to digital belongings in France isn’t incidental. According to a 2024 report by France’s Association for the Development of Digital Assets, 12% of the inhabitants owned crypto belongings, a 25% enhance from the earlier 12 months.
As demonstrated within the United States throughout Donald Trump’s marketing campaign, interesting to crypto-aligned voters gives politicians a pathway to an electoral base that has steadily expanded.
In different nations, efforts to embrace crypto have been much more pronounced.
Mentzen, a Crypto Pioneer in Polish Politics
Poland has skilled a renewed surge of far-right sentiment in its political panorama over latest years. Although the nation is ruled by a center-right coalition, it has confronted rising competitors from extra conservative and libertarian actions.
Sławomir Mentzen, chairman of the far-right New Hope celebration, has emerged as a number one determine on this shift, rising sharply in reputation. A self-described libertarian, Mentzen has lengthy expressed an curiosity in Bitcoin, which accounts for a major share of his private funding portfolio.
When Mentzen disclosed his funds in December 2023, his Bitcoin holdings have been valued at round 5 million zloty, or nearly $1.5 million on the time.
This made him the biggest digital asset holder amongst members of parliament. In a public interview two months later, Mentzen stated he had invested all of his savings in cryptocurrencies as early as 2013.
His private enthusiasm for crypto has additionally translated into political commitments.
When Mentzen ran for the presidency, he pledged to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve if elected. He additionally promised to foster a supportive setting for crypto-related companies, arguing that such insurance policies would encourage innovation and appeal to worldwide buyers.
For many citizens, this message resonated. According to a latest Statista report, 19% of Poland’s inhabitants, or roughly 7 million individuals, used cryptocurrencies in 2025. That determine is projected to rise to 7.6 million by the top of 2026.
Although Mentzen finally positioned third in the newest presidential election, his efficiency was notable.
In the primary spherical, he secured round 2.9 million votes, or almost 15% of the whole. It marked one of many strongest showings by a far-right candidate in trendy Polish presidential elections.
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