Two Crypto Billionaires Give Reform UK a Combined £72 Million in Under 48 Hours

Stock photo via Pexels

Reuters reported Saturday that cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne donated £36 million (roughly $49 million) to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, matching a gift made the previous day by BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo.

Together, the two contributions total £72 million ($97.4 million) and jointly set a new record for individual donations to a British political party.

Harborne, who holds stakes in stablecoin issuer Tether and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, announced his gift in a Telegraph newspaper article. He said Delo's pledge had inspired him to match it.

Harborne wrote that he expected nothing in return, including no appointment to the House of Lords and no changes to party policy.

Delo's Friday donation had already overtaken the previous record of £10 million, left to the Conservative Party by businessman John Sainsbury before his death in 2022, according to Electoral Commission records.

Harborne's Saturday gift was four times the size of his own prior £9 million contribution disclosed in December 2025, which CoinDesk had reported at the time as the largest single donation to a British party by a living donor.

Money Exceeds Major Party Election Spending

The combined £72 million surpasses what both the governing Labour Party and the Conservatives each spent during last year's general election campaign, per Electoral Commission data.