BitMEX Co-Founder Donates $5 Million to Reform UK

Ben Delo co-founded crypto exchange BitMEX in 2014 and pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, paying a $10 million fine. President Donald Trump pardoned him in March 2025. The London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, founded in 2011, is an independent research center where scholars focus on pure mathematics, theoretical physics and artificial intelligence without teaching or administrative duties.

On March 3, 2026, Delo pledged £20 million ($27 million) to LIMS, one of the largest private gifts to a UK research institution outside Oxford and Cambridge. The commitment comprises £10 million upfront and another £10 million once the institute raises matching funds. It anchors a broader £80 million endowment campaign intended to secure LIMS’s long-term independence and help its researchers compete for Fields Medals or Nobel Prizes.

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has drawn increasing financial support from entrepreneurs linked to the cryptocurrency industry. The growing concentration of donations among a small number of wealthy backers has intensified concern over whether crypto money could shape the party’s positions on financial regulation and wider UK policy. Farage is also facing an investigation connected to donations from several crypto-industry figures.

UK Electoral Commission data showed BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donated about £4 million to Reform UK in the second quarter of 2026, accounting for nearly 75% of the party’s total donations during the period. The contribution, described in reports as another £4 million from Delo, underscores the scale of his financial support and has renewed scrutiny of transparency and potential donor influence over the party.

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, is seeking to build a national campaign operation capable of challenging Labour and the Conservatives at the next British general election, due by August 2029. Britain has no comprehensive cap on political donations, making wealthy backers a recurring source of scrutiny. The party’s embrace of crypto — it became the first UK party to accept digital-asset donations in May 2025 — has also sharpened debate over donor influence and campaign-finance safeguards.

On Sept. 11, 2026, BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo disclosed a £36 million ($48.7 million) donation to Reform UK. On Sept. 12, Tether investor Christopher Harborne matched it with another £36 million, taking the two-day total to £72 million, or about $97 million. Each gift tied the record for the largest single donation to a British political party, while the combined sum exceeded what all UK parties raised last year. Reform UK said the money would fund policy development and the hiring of 400 constituency campaign managers.