Two Crypto Billionaires Pledge £72 Million to Reform UK in Two Days
Christopher Harborne has pledged $48.7 million (£36 million) to Reform UK, matching an identical £36 million pledge from fellow billionaire Ben Delo made 24 hours earlier. Together, the two pledges total $97 million promised to the party led by 62-year-old Nigel Farage since Friday. Al Jazeera
Harborne, 63, is a Thailand-based cryptocurrency investor. He announced his pledge in writing in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, September 12. Delo, 42, co-founded the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange. He announced his £36 million gift on Friday, September 11. That gift was described as a record donation, worth about $49 million, and Delo was identified as British. Le Monde Together, the pair delivered £72 million from cryptocurrency billionaires in two days. ITV
Delo was convicted in the United States, according to reporting on his donation. The Guardian No further details about that conviction were in the verified facts.
The pledges arrived days after London's Metropolitan Police confirmed earlier in the week a criminal investigation into whether Reform UK accepted illegal foreign donations, funds from abroad that UK parties are generally barred from taking. Police are investigating at least £500,000 ($671,000) in donations to the party. Reuters
Senior Reform UK figures stepped down after allegations of electoral law breach, reported on September 4. Farage was under parliamentary investigation over a £5 million donation from Harborne in 2024. Separately, Farage described a $7 million gift as a 'reward' for Brexit.
Reform UK had already been out-raising its main rivals. It raised more than its rivals for the third quarter in a row, helped by large donations, according to data reported in June. Crypto investors were cited as a factor in that fundraising lead. Reuters
The broader context here is what pledges on this scale buy in practical terms. Back-to-back gifts in the tens of millions pay for staff, data work, candidate selection, and a longer campaign. It is like filling a campaign's fuel tank all at once. They also focus attention on permissibility and provenance, meaning whether the money is legally allowed and where it came from.
Looking to the next few weeks, the sequence matters as much as the sums. A record pledge, then a matched pledge within a day, alongside continued police and parliamentary scrutiny, creates two tracks at once. One is political capacity. The other is legal risk. The question is how regulators, rivals, and voters weigh £72 million in new spending power while investigations into at least £500,000 in earlier donations and the £5 million Harborne gift from 2024 proceed. The donations are announced. Their clearance is not.
