imposing a temporary ban on cryptocurrency donations<\/a> and a cap on donations from Britons living abroad to political parties as part of a wider government review into electoral interference. No other parties have promoted pro-crypto policies and the Greens have called for a ban on \u201cunethical\u201d crypto adverts in the London Underground. <\/p>\n![\"Stella](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/House-of-Commons_250403_UK-US-Trade-and-Tariffs---Secretary-of-State-for-Business-and-Trade-15_52952.jpeg\")
Stella Creasy is seeking an amendment that would cap donations from any individual (House of Commons)<\/p>\n
Labour MP Stella Creasy wants the government to go further and fears its cap could only create a loophole that people with British postcodes will exploit.<\/p>\n
She is fighting for an amendment to cap donations from any individual and prevent everyone from having \u201can outsized influence on British politics because of the amount of money they can give\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the public should be worried full stop,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat I fear is coming is the wholesale distortion of democracy whereby a small number of disproportionately loud voices determine outcomes because of the funding they offer. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven if there is no connection between Mr Farage receiving substantial sums of money and his views on cryptocurrencies, the appearance of it undermines our democracy. Just as the appearance that individual donations to my own political party might be shaping outcomes, or to the Conservatives, or to the Greens, or the Lib Dems.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cBut if it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, you can see why people are squawking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour MP Catherine West told The Independent: \u201cThe late Robin Williams once suggested that politicians should wear jackets with the names of the people who are sponsoring them. In Reform’s case, it seems to be a magic cloak that disappears when difficult questions are asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrdinary people across the country need nothing less than full disclosure on who exactly is trying to buy their way into UK legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Nigel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/e6c328282f522be10a057aa21bf58c0eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQ4NjQwNjYy-2.80399283.jpg\")
Nigel Farage claimed his party would make London one of the major crypto trading centres of the world (PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Experts have warned of the dangers of accepting such large donations from a tiny group of people, saying many will likely be seeking a \u201creturn on investment\u201d and may be hoping to influence policy or party stance.<\/p>\n
Tory MP Harriet Baldwin, former chair of the Treasury committee, said: \u201cIn the US, President Trump has profited personally from liberalising the rules around cryptocurrencies. It would be regrettable if the UK became a place where politicians used power over independent regulators for their own personal enrichment.\u201d<\/p>\n
What are Reform\u2019s policies on cryptocurrency? <\/p>\n
The \u00a320m received by Reform does not include \u00a3614,000 in donations and payments from individuals and groups tied to the sector, declared by Mr Farage. He also has shares in Stack BTC, a UK bitcoin treasury. <\/p>\n
Since the general election, he and his party have fought to liberalise the crypto market, argued against state involvement in the sector, and published draft legislation that hopes to ignite a \u201ccrypto revolution\u201d in Britain.<\/p>\n
It is a stance shared by Farage ally Donald Trump who has championed the digital currency and heavily profited from crypto while in office.<\/p>\n
The US president has unveiled several crypto-friendly policies since and made more than $1.4bn (USD) from business dealings in cryptocurrency last year.<\/p>\n
During a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, Mr Farage promised to enact his Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill if Reform won at the next general election. <\/p>\n
The draft piece of legislation promised to cut taxes on crypto profits and create a Treasury bitcoin reserve fund. It has since disappeared from Reform\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Stuart Wilks-Heeg, a politics professor at the University of Liverpool, said the large proportion of Reform\u2019s funding coming from individuals with crypto ties was \u201csignificant\u201d. He said individuals typically donated to parties because they have a shared ideology, want influence, or expect something in return. <\/p>\n
He told The Independent: \u201cThese are some of the biggest donations in British political history, and it’s a sector that a lot of people have concerns about for good reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe easiest party to influence in terms of policy is clearly Reform, because it’s not internally democratic. Basically, what Nigel says goes. So if you’ve got Nigel’s ear, you can shape policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/trump-farage-oval-office.jpeg\")
Donald Trump made more than $1.4bn (USD) from business dealings in cryptocurrency last year (Instagram)<\/p>\n
Sam Power, a leading expert in political financing at the University of Bristol, said the donations were essential for a party that has such a shallow funding base.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never in British politics seen a party of that shape and size secure the kind of income that they [Reform] have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be hard to look at Reform\u2019s view on crypto and think that crypto donors backing them wouldn\u2019t think they\u2019ve spent their money wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-746492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/farage-crypto-indycomp.jpeg\")
The majority of Reform\u2019s funding is from individuals tied to the crypto sector (Getty\/The Independent)<\/p>\n