LONDON — British cryptocurrency billionaire Ben Delo has pledged £36 million ($48.7 million) to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, a funding commitment that Reuters says would set a new record for a British political donation and dramatically expand the party’s financial resources ahead of the next general election.
But the headline figure comes with an important detail: Delo is not simply handing over £36 million in one payment.
The BitMEX co-founder said the money would be provided at a rate of roughly £1 million a month in the run-up to Britain’s next national election, which Reuters reported is due by mid-2029. Delo said his aim was to give Reform the resources needed to develop policies and prepare for the possibility of entering government.
The Financial Times also described the commitment as the largest single political donation in British history, putting the scale of Delo’s backing well beyond the sums traditionally associated with individual UK political donors.
Delo Was Already One of Reform UK’s Biggest Donors
The £36 million pledge is not Delo’s first financial involvement with Reform UK.
According to Reuters, he had already contributed £8 million to the party before announcing the new commitment. The latest pledge surpasses the previous record cited by Reuters: a £10 million contribution left to the Conservative Party by businessman John Sainsbury.
Delo said he wanted Reform to be able to spend less time fundraising and more time developing detailed policy and preparing legislation.
Farage welcomed the commitment and said he was “honoured and humbled” by Delo’s financial support. Delo, for his part, framed the contribution as an attempt to give Reform the resources to compete with Labour and the Conservatives.
The scale of the pledge becomes clearer when compared with recent official fundraising figures.
UK Electoral Commission data show that Reform UK reported accepting about £5.33 million in donations excluding public funds during the second quarter of 2026. Labour reported about £3.59 million and the Conservatives about £2.81 million over the same period.
A £36 million commitment therefore represents several times the party’s entire quarterly donation intake earlier this year.
The Trump Pardon Adds Another Layer to the Story
Delo is one of the founders of cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX.
In February 2022, Delo and fellow co-founder Arthur Hayes pleaded guilty in the United States to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish and maintain an adequate anti-money-laundering program at BitMEX.
Under his plea agreement, Delo agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The legal chapter changed three years later.
On March 27, 2025, President Donald Trump granted Delo a full and unconditional presidential pardon in the federal case. The official clemency document identifies Benjamin Delo and his BitMEX case by name.
That pardon did not change the historical fact that Delo had entered a guilty plea in 2022; it granted him presidential clemency from the federal conviction and its remaining consequences.
Donation Arrives During Wider Scrutiny of UK Political Funding
Delo’s announcement also comes at a sensitive moment for Reform UK.
Reuters reported that two senior Farage aides were suspended following allegations stemming from an undercover investigation involving possible attempts to arrange political support financed by an overseas donor. The allegations have increased scrutiny of political funding around the party; Reform has denied wrongdoing in connection with the wider controversy.
The distinction is important: the allegations surrounding other fundraising arrangements do not by themselves establish that Delo’s £36 million pledge is unlawful.
Separately, Britain’s Electoral Commission has said the government is pursuing reforms intended to strengthen political-finance rules. Proposed measures include tighter requirements connecting corporate donors to the UK, additional “know your donor” checks and changes designed to close loopholes involving unincorporated associations.
That regulatory backdrop means unusually large political donations are likely to receive close examination regardless of which party receives them.
Why £1 Million a Month Could Matter
The structure of Delo’s commitment may ultimately prove almost as significant as the overall £36 million figure.
Instead of financing only a short election campaign, monthly payments could provide Reform UK with a sustained stream of money for staff, policy development, organisation and campaign infrastructure over several years.
Delo himself has argued that political parties seeking government need substantial resources to develop detailed policies and draft legislation.
For Reform UK, the pledge potentially provides something political parties often find harder to secure than a one-off fundraising surge: predictable financing stretching toward the next election.
For Britain’s broader political system, however, the size of the commitment is likely to keep another question in focus — how the country should regulate extremely large individual donations while maintaining transparency over who finances political parties.
Whatever its eventual political impact, the numbers alone make Delo’s pledge exceptional.
A cryptocurrency entrepreneur who pleaded guilty to a U.S. banking-law offence in 2022, received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in 2025 and had already contributed millions to Reform UK is now promising another £36 million — delivered £1 million at a time — as Britain moves toward its next general election.
That combination of money, timing and political-finance scrutiny is what makes this donation far more significant than another entry in a party fundraising ledger.
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