BitMEX Co-Founder Gives Reform UK Another 4 Million Pounds

BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo has given Reform UK another 4 million pounds, taking his donations to Nigel Farage's party to 8 million pounds this year. That's according to UK Electoral Commission records published Thursday.

Delo's latest donation

The money came as two cash payments, received on April 17 and April 30 and accepted by the party the next day. Together they made up 75% of the 5.33 million pounds Reform UK took in donations that quarter, and were the two largest single gifts to any British party in that period. Delo co-founded BitMEX in 2014 but no longer runs the exchange.

Who is funding Reform UK

Reform out-raised Labour, which accepted 3.59 million pounds, though the Conservatives reported a bigger total sum. Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based Tether stakeholder who has given Reform 15 million pounds since the last election, gave nothing this quarter. Since March, donors have needed 12 months on the electoral register to give more than 100,000 pounds a year. A Reform source told The Guardian the party is confident it will not have to hand back Delo's 4 million pounds, which suggests he had likely been on the electoral register far longer than assumed.

• Reform UK raised 5.33 million pounds in donations for the quarter.
• Labour received 3.59 million pounds.
• Harborne has given Reform 15 million pounds since the last election but gave nothing this quarter.
• Delo's two payments covered three-quarters of the party's quarterly donations.

Cash, not crypto

Reform UK was the only major party accepting crypto donations before the March ban. Neither Delo's nor Harborne's money has ever taken that form. Delo pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over anti-money laundering failures at BitMEX, before US President Donald Trump pardoned him and fellow co-founders Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed in 2025. Writing in the Telegraph in April, Delo called the case "a regulatory failing that isn't even a crime in the UK." BitMEX itself is winding down: owner HDR Global Trading said in July that the exchange closes on September 23 after a strategic review.

A wider funding scandal

Delo's donation surfaced as scrutiny of Reform's funding grows. On Friday, hours before the party conference opened, Farage's aide Dan Jukes and policy chief James Orr stepped down. That happened after Channel 4 aired footage of them arranging for a supposed US company, in fact controlled by undercover journalists, to fund 32,500 pounds of party polling.

"Reform has taken no illegal money."

- Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, press statement, September 4, 2026

Farage blamed "loose pub talk" by two men not authorized to act as they did, and ordered an internal investigation. The Electoral Commission says it is in touch with the Metropolitan Police, which has not opened an inquiry. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is separately weighing whether Farage should have declared Harborne's 5 million pound personal gift. Delo's donation shows how closely crypto wealth is now tied to political funding in Britain, even after the ban on accepting it directly in digital assets.