BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donates £4 million to Reform UK, bringing total to £8 million in 2024

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

The money came as two cash payments, received on April 17 and April 30 and accepted the next day. Together they made up 75% of the £5.33 million Reform took in donations, and were the two largest single gifts to any British party in the quarter.

Reform out-raised Labour, which accepted £3.59 million, though the Conservatives reported more overall. Christopher Harborne, the Thailand-based Tether stakeholder who has given Reform £15 million since the last election, gave nothing to any party.

Since March, donors have needed 12 months on the UK electoral register to give more than £100,000 a year. A Reform source told The Guardian the party is confident it will not have to hand back Delo's £4 million, raising the possibility he was registered for longer than assumed.

Cash, not crypto

None of it was paid in cryptocurrency. Britain banned crypto political donations in March, and Reform was the only major party accepting them. Neither Delo's nor Harborne's money has taken that form.

Delo pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over anti-money laundering failures at BitMEX, before U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned him and the exchange's 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, which Delo co-founded in 2014 and no longer runs, closes on September 23 after a strategic review.

The donation lands as Reform's funding faces wider scrutiny. Farage's aide Dan Jukes and policy chief James Orr stepped down on Friday, hours before the party conference opened, after Channel 4 aired footage of them arranging for a supposed U.S. company—in fact controlled by undercover journalists—to fund £32,500 of party polling.