Crypto-billionaire pardoned by Trump donates record £36m to Reform UK in bid to 'level the playing field'
Crypto-investor Ben Delo said on Friday he had donated the record sum to create a "fair fight" for Reform UK
A crypto-billionaire pardoned by Donald Trump has donated a record £36m to Reform UK to maximise its chances of winning the next election.
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Crypto-investor Ben Delo said on Friday he had donated the record sum to create a "fair fight" for Reform UK.
The huge donation dwarfs the previous £10m record set by Lord Sainsbury's gift to the Conservative Party in 2022.
Nigel Farage said he was "honoured and humbled" by the donation from Mr Delo, the founder of a crypto trading platform.
He added: “Ben knows that we are the only party that can turn the country around and reverse Britain’s decline.”
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Writing for the Telegraph, Mr Delo, the co-founder of a crypto trading platform, said: " Unlike the people who express mock concern for the health of “our democracy” while doing everything they can to keep it as a cartel, I want a fair fight and a level playing field."
The 42-year-old said he wanted Reform to be able to "spend less time trying to raise funds to compete on equal terms and more time preparing for government.”
Mr Delo, who was already Reform's second-largest donor, blasted Labour and the Conservatives for making it "very expensive to challenge them".
Between January 2021, when Reform was created, and September 2026, the Conservatives raised £150 million, Labour raised £128 million and Reform raised £38 million.
Mr Delo, the co-founder of crypto trading platform BitMEX, was previously convicted of a banking secrecy violation in the U.S. and pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Reform UK is currently the subject of a police investigation over allegations it took funding from a US firm for three polls it commissioned earlier this year, costing £32,500, Channel 4 News reported.
The purported donors were in fact undercover reporters from investigative group Verbatim posing as an American financier and his UK-based son.
Foreign companies are not a permissible source of funding for parties, including for payments for studies and research, under electoral law.
The Met Police announced a full criminal inquiry on Wednesday into allegations that the party breached donation rules barring accepting funding from foreign donors.
Mr Farage is also facing a parliamentary investigation into a £5 million donation to pay for his security from Thai billionaire Christopher Harborne.