UK PM Rishi Sunak has a soft spot for Bored Apes
After Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in turbulent times, resigned, Rishi Sunak was chosen as the new Tory party leader.
Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in turbulent times, resigned, and Rishi Sunak was chosen as the new Tory party leader. The 42-year-old is stepping up as the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Is Rishi Sunak richer than the King?
Sunak was born in 1980 in the southern coastal town of Southampton. His grandparents emigrated to the United Kingdom from India in the 1960s. His father works as a GP and his mother is a pharmacist. Sunak's parents sent him to Winchester College, an elite boarding school in southern England. The tuition was more than €50,000 per year.
At the University of Oxford he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics—a well-known program among British politicians—before working as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. He entered politics in 2015.
He met his wife, Akshata Murthy, at Stanford University while he completed his MBA there. Murthy's father is recognized as one of the richest men in India. Together the couple reportedly has a fortune of more than €800 million — more than the British monarch King Charles III.
Bitcoin and Co. in Downing Street
As former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sunak positions himself as pro-crypto. As early as the fall of 2021, the new prime minister was bullish on CBDCs and laid out the benefits of a digital central bank currency, in View post on X. In April this year the 42-year-old stated his intention to "make the UK a global hub for cryptoasset technology". To achieve that, stablecoins should be prioritized to establish them as recognized payment methods in the UK. They also planned to set up a kind of "sandbox" for financial market infrastructures to spur innovation.
In an episode of the podcast "Jimmy's Jobbs" earlier this year, Sunak became more specific: he said he prefers a basket of cryptocurrencies over individual crypto assets and has more love for Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) than the CryptoPunks NFT collection.
Political turmoil in the UK
What we can expect from Sunak as prime minister is far from certain: there is no classic election program, Sunak was ultimately appointed by his Tory colleagues.
The opposition party led by Keir Starmer is calling for new general elections. In the United Kingdom general elections are typically held about every five years. According to the Dissolution and Convocation of Parliament Act 2022, only the head of state has the power to call early elections.
In this case it is likely in the Conservatives' own interest to block early elections — current polling on UK party support does not paint the Tories in a good light.
