New UK Election Funding Rules Could Hit Reform's Crypto Billionaire Donors - Decrypt

New UK Election Funding Rules Could Hit Reform's Crypto Billionaire Donors

The UK government has announced a fresh crackdown on foreign money in politics, and the new rules could squeeze the crypto billionaires who have bankrolled Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

Unveiled Monday, the measures extend a £100,000 cap on overseas donations, in force since March , so that it also covers a donor's first year of UK residency—meaning someone cannot simply relocate to Britain and immediately write a larger check.

Company donations will be judged on post-tax profits over five years rather than revenue, to keep out firms with big turnover but murky operations, and candidates must prove that any pre-campaign funding came from "legitimate sources."

The reforms build on the March package, which capped overseas donations and banned crypto donations until the UK can regulate them. At the time of the ban, Reform UK was the only major British political party to accept donations made in cryptocurrency. The bill returns to the Commons for its final stages next week.

The residency change could bite hardest on the crypto billionaires backing Reform UK. Thailand-based Christopher Harborne, who holds a 12% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether, has donated a total of £12 million to the party, and has since registered to vote in the UK.

Ben Delo, the Hong Kong-based co-founder of the BitMEX exchange, has donated some £4 million to Reform. Delo, who was pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2025 after pleading guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, has said he intends to move back to Britain—a return that would, the Independent noted, leave him capped at donating £100,000 for a year.

Neither Harborne nor Delo’s donations were made in the form of cryptocurrency, and Reform says no rules were broken.

The clampdown lands in the wake of a Sunday Times investigation alleging that Farage failed to declare years of "in-kind" help, from staff and security to housing, provided by George Cottrell, aka “Posh George,” a longtime confidant, convicted fraudster and crypto-gambler.

Cottrell, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the U.S. after a 2016 sting and is now seeking a pardon from President Trump, has deep crypto ties. According to the Sunday Times , he became a "key player" in Tether.bet, an offshore casino that took bets in cash or crypto and operated without a UK gambling licence. A Polymarket account linked to Cottrell by blockchain investigator ZachXBT has staked millions on geopolitical bets.

Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde has written to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner calling for an investigation into Farage's "failure to declare financial support" from Cottrell.

Farage, already under investigation over an undeclared £5 million ($6.7 million) gift from Harborne, denies the Cottrell benefits needed declaring, and Cottrell denies having expected anything in return. Decrypt has reached out to Nigel Farage for comment.

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