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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has pulled in more than £25 million from Christopher Harborne, a notable shareholder in Tether and an Ethereum investor, making the party the biggest recipient of political donations in the UK’s first quarter of the year.
Harborne, who also goes by the name Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand, has been funding Reform since at least 2019. Donation Watch puts his cumulative total at £25,190,000. He dropped another £3 million into the party’s coffers this year alone. And that’s before you count BitMEX founder Ben Delo, who threw in a separate £4 million earlier in 2025, channeling his support through what’s described as a right-wing political hub based in Westminster. Together, those two crypto-connected donors have basically bankrolled a significant chunk of Reform’s recent political operation.
The numbers are hard to ignore.
The £5 Million Gift Nobody Talked About
The donations story got messier fast once it came out that Farage had kept a £5 million personal “gift” from Harborne hidden from public view. The gift predates Farage’s formal return to politics in 2024, but the timing still raised obvious questions. At first, Farage said the money was earmarked for security purposes. He later changed that explanation, saying it was actually compensation for his work on Brexit. Neither version fully satisfied critics, and the shifting story made things worse.
It’s not just the money itself. There’s also the question of what Harborne’s crypto interests might mean for Reform’s position on digital asset regulation. Harborne holds a stake in Tether, the world’s most widely used stablecoin by trading volume, and he’s put money into Ethereum. Critics want to know whether those financial ties have shaped the party’s thinking on crypto policy. Reform hasn’t given a clear answer.
Then came the phone hacking claim. Allegations surfaced that Russian spies had broken into Farage’s phone and leaked details of the payment. Strange part? Farage didn’t report it to law enforcement. Labour did. The fact that the opposition party had to step in and flag the incident to authorities didn’t exactly help Farage’s credibility on the transparency front.
Regulators and the Prime Minister Are Watching
The UK’s Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is now formally examining the undisclosed £5 million gift. The Electoral Commission is also looking at whether a deeper investigation is warranted. Two separate regulatory bodies, both circling the same set of facts. That’s a lot of institutional attention for one donation.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer didn’t hold back. He publicly questioned why Farage kept the gift secret, framing it as a problem of basic political transparency. Starmer’s criticism landed in a political environment already sensitive to questions about dark money and donor influence, so the remarks got traction.
Farage, for his part, hasn’t stepped back from Harborne’s support. And why would he? £25 million over several years is a serious financial foundation for a party still building its national infrastructure.
The broader context matters here. Crypto-linked political donations are not a uniquely British phenomenon. Wealthy figures from the digital asset space have moved into political funding across multiple countries, and regulators in several jurisdictions have started paying closer attention to the intersection of crypto wealth and political influence. The UK situation with Harborne is one of the more prominent examples, partly because of the scale of the donations and partly because of the undisclosed gift controversy that put everything under a spotlight.
Harborne’s dual identity adds another layer of complexity. Going by both Christopher Harborne and Chakrit Sakunkrit, he operates across different jurisdictions, which makes straightforward scrutiny harder. It’s probably not illegal, but it’s the kind of thing that raises eyebrows when regulators are already asking questions.
Delo’s involvement is worth noting separately. The BitMEX founder has a complicated history of his own in the crypto world, and his decision to funnel £4 million into Reform’s orbit through a Westminster political hub says something about the appetite among certain crypto figures to shape UK political outcomes. What exactly that hub does and who else funds it isn’t fully clear from available information.
So where does this leave Reform UK? Flush with cash, under investigation, and tied to two of the most prominent names in crypto finance. The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner’s inquiry will likely drag on for months. The Electoral Commission review adds another uncertain timeline.
Farage built Reform into a genuine political force, and Harborne’s money has been part of that story since 2019. The £3 million dropped this year came even as scrutiny was building, which tells you something about where both men stand.
Donation Watch puts the total at £25,190,000.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much has Christopher Harborne donated to Reform UK in total?
Per Donation Watch, Christopher Harborne has donated £25,190,000 to Reform UK since 2019, with an additional £3 million contributed in the most recent period.
Which regulatory bodies are investigating the undisclosed £5 million gift to Farage?
The UK’s Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is examining the gift, and the Electoral Commission is assessing whether a further investigation is needed.
