Reform UK Banks £72M as Two Crypto Billionaires Match £36M Gifts

Two crypto billionaires, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, each donated £36 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, according to two independent outlets, theblock.co and decrypt.co. Combined, the two gifts put £72 million into the party’s accounts in a single reporting round, one of the largest political donation tallies disclosed in the UK this year.

Both figures, £36 million from Delo and £36 million from Harborne, appear in both reports we reviewed, which is enough to treat the core numbers as confirmed rather than single-sourced. Decrypt converted the combined total to roughly $97 million for its headline; Cryptaur is preserving the original £36 million and £72 million figures as reported rather than re-converting them.

What’s Confirmed and What Isn’t

Delo is a co-founder of crypto exchange BitMEX. Harborne is a longstanding investor across crypto and aviation ventures. Both donors and both £36 million figures are corroborated across the two reports.

One claim is not: Decrypt’s assertion that the combined £72 million gift beat what every UK political party raised last year did not appear in theblock.co’s summary. That comparison should be treated as single-sourced until a second outlet independently confirms the underlying annual donation figures for UK parties.

The Lords Bill That Could Change the Rules

Only theblock.co’s summary describes a specific legislative response now sitting in the House of Lords: a bill that would halt crypto-asset donations to political parties outright and cap overseas donations at £100,000 a year. Decrypt’s summary did not mention the bill’s contents in the material available to us, so the detail is single-sourced pending further confirmation.

If passed as described, the bill would directly affect the kind of large-scale crypto donations Delo and Harborne just made. A £100,000 annual cap on overseas giving would be a fraction of the £36 million each donor contributed this round.

Why the Timing Stands Out

The donations land while lawmakers are actively debating whether crypto wealth should be allowed to fund UK political parties at all. That makes the £72 million combined total not just a fundraising milestone for Reform UK, but a live data point in the regulatory debate itself.

For now, the two confirmed figures are £36 million from Delo, £36 million from Harborne, and a House of Lords bill still under consideration. Its final wording, and whether it passes before further crypto-funded donations arrive, is not yet settled.

Sources

• theblock.co
• decrypt.co