Ben Delo donates £4M to Farage’s Reform UK, bringing his total to £8M

Ben Delo, the British co-founder of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, has given another £4 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. That brings his total contributions to £8 million in 2026, making the 42-year-old Oxford graduate the party’s second-largest financial backer. The donation comes from a man who pleaded guilty to US Bank Secrecy Act violations in 2022 over anti-money laundering failures at BitMEX, only to receive a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in 2025. Following the money Delo structured his support in two £4 million tranches. The first arrived in early 2026: £2 million on January 14 and another £2 million on March 2. He announced that initial commitment in an op-ed published in The Daily Telegraph on April 8, describing it as his first foray into political engagement. In that piece, Delo framed his backing as a response to what he called a “regime of nonsense” perpetuated by UK elites. The second £4 million tranche landed in Q2 2026, confirmed through Electoral Commission data released on September 3. Reform UK reported £5.3 million in total donations for that quarter, meaning Delo’s contribution alone accounted for roughly 75% of the party’s quarterly fundraisi...