Farage's £9 Million Crypto Donor Sparks Political Funding Fears in UK
The record-biggest single donation comes as some in Westminster seek a cap on political spending.
Reform UK broke records after it emerged this week that it had received a single £9 million ($12 million) donation from a cryptocurrency investor. While the size captured headlines, its significance went well beyond the amount of money involved. Some in the UK saw it as another attempt to import tactics that have helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency in the US, and a signal of just how much donors may be willing to spend to influence an upstart party creating policy from scratch.
The right-wing party, lead by Nigel Farage, was handed the mega-donation by Christopher Harborne, who was an early buyer of Bitcoin and amassed a 12% stake in the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which shares a parent with Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer.