Crypto billionaires bankroll Nigel Farage's pro-crypto party

Tether-linked billionaire Christopher Harborne and BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo donated $9.4 million to Nigel Farage's Reform UK in the first quarter.

Nigel Farage's Reform UK received 7 million British pounds ($9.4 million) from two crypto billionaires this year, with total funds raised outstripping all other political parties.

The party received a $4 million donation from Christopher Harborne, who has a stake in the stablecoin issuer Tether, and a $5.4 million donation from Ben Delo, the co-founder of the crypto exchange BitMEX, according to Electoral Commission data released on Thursday.

The Labour and Conservative parties each received around $5.4 million in the first quarter of the year.

Reform UK has pitched itself as a pro-crypto party. It was the first UK political party to accept donations in Bitcoin (BTC), and Farage has proposed cutting capital gains taxes on crypto from 24% to 10%. He has also called for the Bank of England to create a Bitcoin reserve.

The crypto industry has been spending heavily on politics as it seeks to influence policy. In the US, crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) have recently spent millions to successfully back candidates who won primary elections ahead of the country's midterm elections in November.

Delo is a first-time donor to the right-wing populist party, while the latest donations bring Harborne's total to $20 million in the past year. Harborne had separately given Farage a $6.7 million personal gift, which is facing a probe by a parliamentary standards inquiry as to whether it should have been registered. Reform's fundraising in the first quarter has increased sixfold compared to the same time last year.