Cryptocurrencies are now embedded in many mainstream portfolios and regulators across multiple jurisdictions are finalizing oversight. In the US in particular, policymakers are signalling active support for sector development.
Stack BTC Plc: Farage & Kwarteng Bet on M&A-driven Cashflow to Buy Bitcoin
9 March 2026 - 11:18 CET
Against that backdrop, Kwasi Kwarteng, briefly the UK’s top finance minister in 2022, recently declared his interest in digital assets as executive chairman of Stack, a UK-based, Aquis-listed vehicle seeking to combine M&A activity with a Bitcoin treasury strategy. "Bitcoin is entering its institutional phase and this is a real opportunity," Kwarteng said. He has now been joined as an investor by Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK.
Emphasis on cash
At the end of February, Stack announced a £2.1mn equity raise. The proceeds will fund acquisitions, seed its Bitcoin treasury and cover working capital. It was not a market-moving sum of money, but the company has drawn attention because its chairman became famous during the short-lived Liz Truss government – Kwarteng was only in post for 38 days.
A week or so later, Stack announced that Farage, who heads the UK's right-of-centre populist party, had added a further £260,000 investment.
Politics aside, the company is also interesting because of its business model. Speaking to Sandmark in an interview before the declaration of Farage's interest, CEO Jai Patel was clear that acquisition decisions will be driven by profitability. "Cash flow is more of a priority than specific sectors," he said.
There are obvious adjacencies. Patel acknowledged that attractive businesses exist within the Bitcoin ecosystem. Two recent joiners, who are both investors and C-level executives, come from property finance.
But Patel stopped short of sector commitments, emphasizing instead a geographic focus on the UK and the intent to "leverage our networks and expertise to find the right businesses."
The message is disciplined opportunism rather than thematic investing.
A new TradFi and DAT model?
Stack plans to use the resulting cash flow to fund its Bitcoin purchases. "We want to break from the current digital asset treasury model of a Bitcoin proxy," Patel said, "to focus on combining the cash we generate with our Bitcoin treasury."
If executed as described, that would mark a structural shift. Rather than raising capital purely to buy Bitcoin, Stack aims to build or acquire businesses that generate distributable cash and redeploy it into BTC. In effect, it would be a hybrid between traditional private equity roll-up logic and a digital asset treasury strategy.
The scalability of the model will depend on the firm’s ability to identify high-yield targets in a competitive M&A landscape.
The wealth preservation argument"A Bitcoin treasury company is accumulating Bitcoin because it is a far greater preserver of wealth than a fiat currency," Kwarteng said in a recent corporate video, reflecting the argument about the decentralized nature of Bitcoin.
There is some irony in this. As finance minister, Kwarteng’s 2022 mini-budget triggered a sharp sell-off in sterling and a spike in gilt yields. His current positioning around monetary stability invites scrutiny and perhaps reflects a reassessment of macro risk.
Tactical accumulation
More tactically, Patel is focusing on accumulation during drawdowns rather than at cyclical highs. He described the current retracement as being consistent with historical patterns between halvings and suggests it presents a "compelling opportunity." Stack has used £1.13mn of capital raised to buy 21 bitcoins, leaving £1.2mn for M&A activity and to fund operations.
Stack is an early-stage venture, albeit with high-profile investors. The few million pounds raise leaves limited firepower after costs and it's not expected to rival the balance sheets of the largest corporate treasuries or meaningfully shift the M&A landscape this year. Michael Saylor's firm Strategy, the largest Bitcoin accumulator, reported a reserve worth close to $60bn at the end of 2025, although the price of the original cryptocurrency has slumped since then.
Structure not scale
The question, however, is not scale today but structure. If institutional capital continues to migrate toward digital assets, particularly into the next halving cycle, hybrid models that marry operating cash flow with Bitcoin accumulation could proliferate.
