Nigel Farage’s political party, Reform UK, collected £72 million ($97.4 million) from two digital asset billionaires over a span of two days, as Tether investor Christopher Harborne and BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo each contributed £36 million ($48.7 million).
On Friday, Delo disclosed his contribution through an opinion piece published in the Telegraph. This marks the largest single financial contribution ever made to a British political faction, surpassing the previous record of £10 million given to the Conservatives by Lord John Sainsbury back in 2022.
According to Delo’s publication, the funds provide Reform with a fair footing against rival groups. Initially, he planned to donate £1 million every month leading up to the upcoming general election scheduled for 2029 at the latest, but decided to accelerate the entire sum into one transaction out of concern that authorities might restrict contributions.
Delo stated in his text that individuals possessing substantial resources and influence have an obligation to step forward and assist Reform in securing victory and governance, rather than watching citizens remain trapped inside the political monoculture steering the nation toward ruin.
Harborne announced that he matched Delo’s financial contribution in his own Telegraph column released on Saturday morning. He noted that Delo informed him regarding the planned transfer, and his own competitive nature inspired him to mirror the exact figure.
As reported by The Guardian, Reform UK head Nigel Farage expressed that he felt deeply honored and humbled by Delo’s gift.
The contributors
Delo, who is 42 years old, established BitMEX in 2014 alongside Samuel Reed and Arthur Hayes. In 2022, Delo entered a guilty plea regarding infractions of the US Bank Secrecy Act linked to the trading platform’s failure to implement proper anti-money laundering protocols. His plea included a $10 million criminal penalty and a 30-month probationary period. In March 2025, President Donald Trump granted a pardon to Delo, Reed, and Hayes.
Within his Friday commentary, Delo claimed that American prosecutors targeted them due to inadequate record-keeping practices concerning users, emphasizing that the exchange operated transparently and never misplaced any user capital through a security breach or misplacement. BitMEX announced during July that it would close the website indefinitely by September 2026 following an internal evaluation conducted by leadership regarding the enterprise and broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Having relocated back to the UK from Hong Kong this year, Delo had already provided £8 million to Reform during 2026, which featured an initial £4 million disclosed publicly in April.
Residing in Thailand, British financier Harborne holds roughly a 12% equity share in Tether and has contributed millions to Reform starting in 2025, which included a £9 million financial transfer previously holding the record for the largest contribution to a UK political entity from a living individual.
House of Lords will evaluate contribution limits
These financial infusions occur while the UK legislature modifies regulations governing political financing. The Representation of the People Bill seeks to halt cryptocurrency-based contributions while capping annual funding at £100,000 ($135,000) for British voters living abroad alongside specific recently returned citizens.
The prohibition on cryptocurrency would apply retrospectively to any contributions completed on or after March 25, which was the date Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer made the announcement, requiring recipient parties to return any impacted funds within 30 days of the policy taking effect.
According to Parliament’s legislative tracker, the bill cleared the House of Commons on September 2 and advanced to the House of Lords on September 3. None of these regulatory adjustments will become active until the legislation successfully passes through the House of Lords and receives royal approval.
Government officials contend that digital asset transfers challenge ownership traceability, complicating verification efforts regarding whether incoming political funds originate from legal contributors. In his essay, Delo argued that restricting opposition resources is undemocratic and functions as election tampering unless the Labour Party also constrains the labor union funding supporting them.
Labour MP Stella Creasy, who advocates for the restriction, told The Guardian on Friday that Delo’s contribution—amounting to more for Reform in a single day than the total expenditures of Labour throughout the general election—proves that the restriction cannot arrive soon enough to safeguard British democracy.
Neither financial backer specified the exact medium utilized for their transactions. Harborne’s past contributions directed to Reform utilized traditional fiat currency.
Scrutiny surrounds Reform’s digital asset financing
Reform became the pioneer UK political party to accept cryptocurrency contributions in May 2025, following Farage’s promise to introduce legislation establishing a Bank of England bitcoin reserve and reducing cryptocurrency capital gains taxes down to 10% should his organization attain authority.
Following an undisclosed £5 million personal transfer received from Harborne in 2024, Farage faced a parliamentary standards investigation. Coupled with a second examination regarding backing originating from George Cottrell—a convicted fraudster connected to the offshore digital betting platform Tether.bet—this scrutiny led Farage to step down from his Clacton parliamentary seat during July, though he maintains he committed no violations.
Following a broadcast by Channel 4 News featuring high-ranking party members debating methods for channeling capital from an American benefactor, the Metropolitan Police initiated a criminal inquiry into Reform’s financial backing last week, prompting two party officials to resign while leadership denies any misconduct.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-09-12-crypto-billionaires-ben-delo-and-christopher-harborne-each-donate-36-million-to-farages-reform-uk-414509.
