Ben Delo
British businessman, BitMEX co-founder, pardoned by Donald Trump in March 2025.
On 17 and 30 April, Ben Delo gave Reform UK £4 million in cash, making the BitMEX co-founder a prominent donor in the party's 2026 funding record.
Last refreshed: 3 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why does Ben Delo's £4m gift to Reform UK escape the new crypto-donation ban?
Timeline for Ben Delo
Gave Reform UK £4m in cash across two gifts
UK Local Elections 2026: Delo's £4m arrived as cash, not cryptoBackground
Ben Delo is a British businessman and co-founder of the Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX. His public profile now spans digital-asset business, a United States criminal case and political giving in Britain.
In 2022, Delo pleaded guilty to a US Bank Secrecy Act charge concerning BitMEX anti-money-laundering failures and received 30 months' probation. President Donald Trump pardoned him in March 2025.
Those events make regulatory compliance and political finance the durable context for understanding Delo's role beyond BitMEX. His April 2026 donations show how a Cryptocurrency entrepreneur can also become a significant cash donor to a British political party.
Delo enters British party funding
Ben Delo gave Reform UK £1 million on 17 April 2026 and £3 million on 30 April 2026. The two cash donations placed £4 million of his money in the party's second-quarter funding record.
For Delo, the gifts turn a figure known chiefly for Cryptocurrency into a visible participant in British electoral finance. The September register placed Reform UK's April-to-June receipts at £5,437,360, so his two donations accounted for most of the total reported for that quarter.
How much did Ben Delo give Reform UK?
Why doesn't the new crypto-donation ban cover Ben Delo's gift?
Was Ben Delo pardoned?
