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2026-03-05 10:46:00
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK secured a second 3 million British pounds ($4 million) boost in November 2025 from Thailand-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
The aviation entrepreneur and early crypto backer, who is one of Reform’s largest individual funders, donated another $12 million to the party in August 2025, in what was a record single gift to a UK political party by a living donor.
The additional donation cements Reform’s position at the top of the UK’s political party money race. The party pulled in about $23 million in 2025 in total, with the Conservatives receiving roughly $17 million and the governing Labour party around $10 million, according to the FT.
Harborne, a British national long based in Thailand and also known as Chakrit Sakunkrit, is an aviation entrepreneur and early crypto investor who holds close to a 13% stake in Tether, the issuer of the USDt (USDT) stablecoin, via compensation linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
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He previously donated to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson and pumped around $13 million into Farage’s Brexit Party during the 2019-2020 cycle, making him one of the most significant individual financiers of Britain’s right wing.
Reform, which became the first UK party to formally accept Bitcoin and other crypto donations after Farage’s announcement at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, has promised to introduce a “Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill” if the party wins the next general election in the UK, expected before August 2029.
UK weighs crypto donation ban as Reform cash surges
The party’s rising war chest arrives as the United Kingdom considers clamping down on digital asset money in politics.
Ministers have been weighing options under a new Elections Bill that could include an outright ban on crypto donations, tougher disclosure rules and tighter controls on shell companies and unincorporated associations used to route funds.
Pressure has also grown in Parliament for a temporary moratorium on crypto political donations. Matt Western, chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, urged restrictions on funds routed via mixers or anonymous sources and a requirement to convert any crypto into fiat within 48 hours, in a letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on Feb. 23.
Those calls reflect mounting concern among UK members of parliament, security officials and anti‑corruption campaigners that large, hard‑to‑trace crypto fortunes could be used to channel foreign or undue influence into UK politics.
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026
