Two Crypto Billionaires Just Gave Reform UK £72 Million, the Largest Political Donation in British History

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK collected £72 million, roughly $97 million, from two crypto billionaires inside 48 hours, after BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo disclosed a £36 million gift in a Telegraph column on the evening of Friday 11 September and Tether investor Christopher Harborne matched the figure to the pound a day later. Either cheque on its own would be the largest single donation ever made to a British political party, comfortably clearing the previous record of £10 million that Lord John Sainsbury left the Conservatives in 2022.

The combined total is the part that reframes British political finance, because £72 million exceeds what every registered UK party raised between them across the whole of 2025, and it arrived from two men whose fortunes were built in an industry that barely registered in Westminster fundraising five years ago.

The Donations at a Glance

Neither Cheque Was Paid in Crypto, and That Detail Matters

Britain banned political donations made in cryptocurrency in March, which makes the payment method the single most consequential technical fact in the story, since the money moved as ordinary fiat and therefore sits outside the prohibition entirely. Reform UK says both gifts comply with Electoral Commission rules and UK law, and nothing reported so far contradicts that.