Reform UK’s record £72M donations: nobody can say if it is crypto money
Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne each gave Reform UK £36 million, but whether the record gifts were paid in cryptocurrency or pounds has not been revealed.
Two donors who have handed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK a record £72 million ($97 million) have not said whether any of it was paid in cryptocurrency, and the party that was first in Britain to accept crypto donations has reported none.
Ben Delo, the BitMEX co-founder, announced a £36 million donation to Reform UK in an article published Friday, and Tether investor Christopher Harborne matched it a day later. Neither man’s article revealed the form of payment. Reform became the first UK political party to accept crypto donations in May 2025, when Farage pledged a Bank of England bitcoin reserve bill and a 10% capital gains tax on cryptoassets, yet the Electoral Commission told lawmakers in March that no political party has reported donations identified as cryptoassets.
Delo said in the announcement that he structured the gift as £1 million a month until the next general election, but paid the full sum up front so it could not be blocked. The government announced in March that the Representation of the People Bill would ban political donations in cryptocurrency and cap contributions from overseas electors at £100,000 a year, with the crypto suspension applying retroactively to donations made on or after March 25. The ban is not law yet: the bill cleared the House of Commons on September 2 and moved to the House of Lords the next day, and none of the rules take effect until it receives royal assent, Parliament’s bill tracker shows.
The donors’ fortunes are unmistakably crypto, whatever the money’s form. Delo co-founded BitMEX, pleaded guilty in 2022 to US Bank Secrecy Act violations over the exchange’s weak anti-money laundering program and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in March 2025. Harborne is a British investor based in Thailand with an estimated 12% stake in Tether, an estimate rather than a confirmed holding, and his earlier gifts to Reform were made in cash or fiat.
The ambiguity matters more than it might seem. If the new donations were paid in crypto and the bill passes the Lords, the retroactive suspension could reach them, forcing Reform to return the money within 30 days of the rules taking effect. Neither donor has addressed that scenario, and the Electoral Commission has not commented on either gift.
Delo’s payment outran a bill that is still working its way through Parliament. The Lords take it up next.
