Ben Delo - Reform UK Donor | Reform Watch

Ben Peter Delo (born 24 February 1984) is a British businessman and philanthropist. A double first-class mathematics and computer science graduate of the University of Oxford, he co-founded the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX in 2014 alongside Arthur Hayes and Sam Reed, and was reported by The Times in 2018 as the UK's youngest self-made billionaire. In October 2020 the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice charged BitMEX and its co-founders with violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement an adequate anti-money-laundering programme. Delo surrendered to US authorities in March 2021 and, in February 2022, pleaded guilty to one Bank Secrecy Act violation, agreeing to pay a $10 million civil penalty. In June 2022 he was sentenced to 30 months' probation, running to December 2024. In March 2025 Delo and the other BitMEX founders were pardoned by President Donald Trump. In early 2026 Delo donated £4 million to Reform UK. In April 2026 he announced he was returning to live in the UK after the Labour government introduced a £100,000 cap on donations from Britons living abroad, writing in The Telegraph that 'the biggest obstacle to national recovery is the entrenched self-deception of our elites'. He gave a further £4 million in early September 2026 and, later that month, donated £36 million to Reform UK — the largest donation to a political party in British history at that point — stating his aim was to 'level the playing field' against the Conservatives and Labour. His philanthropy includes co-founding the Sheila Coates Foundation, which supports autistic students in Britain, to which he gave £25 million in 2026, and funding the Ben Delo Fellowship at the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, with a further £20 million pledge.