Billionaire Christopher Harborne donated millions to Farage and Johnson. Then the pro-crypto announcements began. Is there a connection?

Nigel Farage became a crypto evangelist and began drafting policies favouring digital currencies two months after he accepted an undisclosed £5m personal donation from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, a new investigation by the Nerve reveals. The investigation also reveals a succession of pro-crypto announcements by Farage and by Boris Johnson within weeks of substantial donations to themselves or their parties.

Farage’s claim that the £5m donation – revealed last month – was a “gift” that would pay for his security over his lifetime is now being investigated by parliament’s standards committee. But the Nerve’s investigation suggests it could also be seen in the context of a previously undisclosed pattern: one in which Harborne’s donations precede announcements and policy decisions by Farage that align with the specific interests of Harborne’s crypto business.

Using publicly available information from the Electoral Commission, the Nerve has created a detailed timeline that reveals Harborne, whose wealth largely derives from the cryptocurrency Tether, has donated a total of £30m to Nigel Farage, the Brexit party and Reform UK as well as Boris Johnson and the Conservative party. Harborne’s donations make him the second largest political donor in modern British history after Lord David Sainsbury.

While it does not prove a quid pro quo or imply any criminal wrongdoing, the timeline suggests a pattern of pro-crypto announcements by both politicians within weeks of specific donations.

Baroness Margaret Hodge said: “This is an excellent piece of investigative journalism, and it clearly raises questions that everybody involved in both giving and receiving the donations need to answer. Was there a link between the donations and statements and commitments made in relation to cryptocurrency? It’s the kind of political influence from political donations that the new [political donations] bill should seek to make unlawful.”

The Nerve found several donations from Harborne that precede notable pro-crypto moves by Farage and Johnson.

The timeline tells a story that raises questions about the precise nature of the relationship between Harborne and Farage and the extent of Harborne’s political influence. 

Farage – who has called crypto “the ultimate freedom, the ultimate liberty” –  promoted specifically stablecoin-friendly positions in the wake of cash injections from Harborne. 

Kamila Kingstone, Senior Policy and Campaign Lead, Defending Democracy Programme at Spotlight on Corruption told The Nerve in response to these revelations that “nobody gives several million pounds to a political party for nothing.”

“Unless the government urgently introduces measures to limit the power of the ultra-wealthy in our politics through a donation and spending cap, the UK risks becoming a country where public decisions are taken in the interests of a few oligarchs,” she added.

The cadence of donations and announcements accelerated through 2025 after Farage and Harborne flew to Donald Trump’s inauguration aboard Harborne’s private jet. In May of that year, Farage held up a draft copy of Reform’s new UK crypto assets and digital finance bill at a crypto event in Las Vegas. Three months later, in August, Harborne donated £9m to Reform. 

By September, Farage was actively promoting Tether on national radio and calling the Bank of England “dinosaurs” for not adopting its stablecoins. The day after that radio appearance – 25 September 2025 – Farage met Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, to push for a “crypto strategic reserve.” 

Five days later, at a press conference,  Farage insisted Harborne didn’t want anything in return for his money: “Does he want anything from me? No. Absolutely nothing in return at all. He just happens to think that we’ve not made the most of Brexit, that we’re not getting into the 21st-century technologies.”

Farage’s enthusiasm for crypto continued unabated through the autumn. On 13 October, Farage headlined the UK Digital Asset Summit, where he elaborated on Reform’s draft crypto assets and digital finance bill. Reform would, Farage promised, cut capital gains tax on all crypto assets to 10% – including stablecoins – and allow for tax to be paid in cryptocurrency.

Later that month, the Reform leader said he would “rather go to prison” than let the Bank of England create a Central Bank Digital Currency – arguing instead that crypto infrastructure should be built by private corporations. 

On 12 November, Harborne donated £3m to Farage’s party. That same day, Farage published an op-ed for City AM explicitly pledging that a Reform government would place no cap on stablecoin ownership in the UK. In the piece, headlined “Reform’s Britain will lead the digital money revolution”, Farage called the Bank of England’s new rules around ownership an “absurdity”.

“What does this Thailand-based cryptobillionaire want in return for his money? That’s the question we should all be asking,” Phil Brickell MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, told the Nerve. “Ever since he started accepting huge donations from tech bros, Farage has been aping Trump by repeatedly championing cryptocurrency.” 

In the wake of allegations about the undisclosed £5m donation from Harborne, Farage told the Sun that he “can’t be bought by anybody” and that that particular donation was made on a “completely unconditional basis”.

Harborne has only given money to one other individual politician: Boris Johnson, who was prime minister when the Digital Currency Governance Group (DCGG) – a pro-digital-asset lobby group representing Tether – appears to have begun lobbying the UK government.

Around the same time as Johnson took office as prime minister, the DCGG reportedly began pushing behind the scenes for a crypto bill. Early in Johnson’s premiership, Harborne donated £500,000 to the Conservative party – an amount 10 times larger than any of his previous donations to the Tories.

Two months later, Johnson announced a landmark pro-crypto plan. “The government has today announced moves that will see stablecoins recognised as a valid form of payment,” the prime minister said. At this time, Harborne’s Tether was the largest stablecoin issuer in the world.

The following month, Harborne made his first visit to Chequers, spending three hours with the  prime minister and his aides. The month after that, on 22 June, Tether announced the launch of a UK stablecoin, “GBPT”, tied to the pound, following a government announcement recognising stablecoins as a valid form of payment – paving the way for Tether to diversify away from sole reliance on the US market.

Harborne received another invite to Chequers shortly afterwards, visiting the prime minister on 21 August. That same month, the DCGG met the chancellor of the exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi.

Despite Johnson’s fall from grace and resignation as prime minister on 9 September, Harborne made another £500,000 donation to the Conservative party in October. Johnson’s landmark crypto bill was passed into law later that month.

After Johnson’s premiership

In November, Johnson, newly out of office, met Harborne in Singapore for a two-hour lunch. Five days later, Harborne donated £1m to Boris Johnson’s shell company, The Office of Boris Johnson Ltd. This was the largest ever political donation to a British politician at the time, a record Harborne would later break – with his donation to Farage.

Fast forward to June 2024 and the run-up to the general election. Two months after receiving Harborne’s £5m personal donation, Farage made his first official policy pledge in favour of crypto. He did not provide detail about his proposed policies but stated that crypto would be an “important” part of his financial services plan. “Freeing up the UK for crypto is important for me,” he told a press conference at the launch of Reform’s election campaign.

Farage, Johnson and Harborne were approached for comment and did not respond. Main portrait of Christopher Harborne by John Nguyen