Written by Jesse Coghlanstaff editorReviewed by Felix Ngstaff editorCrypto billionaires bankroll Nigel Farage's pro-crypto party
Latest NewsPublishedJun 5, 2026
Tether-linked billionaire Christopher Harborne and BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donated $9.4 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the first quarter.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK received 7 million British pounds ($9.4 million) from two crypto billionaires this year, with total funds raised outstripping all other political parties.
The party received a $4 million donation from Christopher Harborne, who has a stake in the stablecoin issuer Tether, and a $5.4 million donation from Ben Delo, the co-founder of the crypto exchange BitMEX, according to Electoral Commission data released on Thursday.
The Labour and Conservative parties each received around $5.4 million in the first quarter of the year.
Reform UK has pitched itself as a pro-crypto party. It was the first UK political party to accept donations in Bitcoin (BTC), and Farage has proposed cutting capital gains taxes on crypto from 24% to 10%. He has also called for the Bank of England to create a Bitcoin reserve.
The crypto industry has been spending heavily on politics as it seeks to influence policy. In the US, crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) have recently spent millions to successfully back candidates who won primary elections ahead of the country’s midterm elections in November.
Nigel Farage speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Source: Gage Skidmore
Delo is a first-time donor to the right-wing populist party, while the latest donations bring Harborne’s total to $20 million in the past year.
Harborne had separately given Farage a $6.7 million personal gift, which is facing a probe by a parliamentary standards inquiry as to whether it should have been registered.
Related: UK politician Nigel Farage bought $1.8M house after $6.7M crypto gift
Farage has said he didn’t need to declare the money as it was given before he was a member of parliament and was used to pay for personal security. He later claimed the gift was for successfully campaigning for the UK to leave the EU.
Reform’s fundraising in the first quarter has increased sixfold compared to the same time last year, when it received $2 million.
The total funding across all parties for the quarter had also more than doubled compared with a year ago.
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