Christopher Harborne, a billionaire with ties to the cryptocurrency firm Tether, and Ben Delo, a co-founder of the crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, together gave £9.4 million to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party during the first three months of this year. The donation, disclosed in a regulatory filing, ranks among the largest individual political contributions in recent British history.
Who the donors are
Harborne is a Thai-based investor linked to Tether, the company behind the world's largest stablecoin. Delo, a British programmer, helped build BitMEX into a dominant platform for crypto futures trading before U.S. regulators charged the exchange with violating anti-money-laundering rules. The two men have previously supported libertarian and anti-establishment causes.
What the money buys
The £9.4 million injection covers roughly a third of what Reform UK spent on its entire 2024 general election campaign, according to party filings. The cash gives Farage's outfit a war chest for by-elections, local races and the next national vote. Other donors, including a handful of small-business owners, have also contributed, but none at this scale.
Reform UK has relied on a mix of small individual gifts and larger sums from a few wealthy backers. The Harborne-Delo contribution dwarfs the party's typical quarterly intake and provides enough funds to hire additional staff, buy advertising and contest seats aggressively. Farage has not commented publicly on the specific donation, but the party's treasurer confirmed the figures to the electoral commission.
The Electoral Commission's register shows the donation was made on March 26, just before the end of the first quarter. Both donors are listed as individuals, not through corporate vehicles, meaning the source is transparent under U.K. law.
