A bold first step: the government’s new ban on cryptocurrency donations

Just before Parliament headed off on summer holiday, the government announced its plan for keeping cryptocurrency out of the funding of our elections, with an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill.

That amendment now proposes a full ban on cryptocurrency donations. But does the text of the amendment actually go far enough to truly stop cryptocurrency funding leaking into our political finance system?

A moratorium or a ban? 

In March 2026, the Rycroft review into foreign interference recommended a ‘moratorium’ on cryptocurrency donations.  In proposing his moratorium, Rycroft said that an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill should also include “a power to end the moratorium only once Parliament and the Electoral Commission are assured that relevant regulation is effective.” [emphasis added]

At the same time, Rycroft rejected calls to allow the small market in cryptocurrency donations to “grow, under tight supervision by the Electoral Commission and subject to strict rules, for example the use of only UK-regulated exchanges.” More recently, in evidence in Parliament, he  said that it could take up to five years before Parliament would be confident for an appropriate regulatory regime to be developed .  Rycroft also confirmed in that same evidence that, in his view, the wider cryptocurrency regulatory system in the UK “has to be seen to be absolutely robust in terms of where money going into the political process is coming from. It has to be held to a very high standard, and in terms of the traceability of crypto assets I do not think those standards could be met at the moment.”