The UK government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has announced an immediate ban on cryptocurrency donations to political parties, according to the Press Association, citing concerns that the digital asset could be used to hide the origin of foreign money in British politics.
The move puts crypto at the center of a broader crackdown on foreign interference, signaling that regulators are considering anonymous digital payments as a democratic risk rather than just a financial one.
The ban, imposed as a result of the government-led Rycroft review, covers donations of any size and comes into effect today. Parties have 30 days from now to return any crypto received after the law was passed, after which criminal penalties apply. Foreign donations from British expatriates will also be capped at £100,000 per year.
The review’s author, former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft, stopped short of calling for a permanent ban – framing the moratorium as a pause for regulation to catch up to reality. But with the rules written into the Representation of the People Bill currently moving through Parliament, the stakes for lifting them are high.
“I didn’t come here to look after the interests of any political party,” Rycroft said. “I came here to look after the interest of our democratic processes.”
Members of Reform UK, who currently lead the polling data, walked out of Parliament during the announcement. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took a sharp dig at reform leader Nigel Farage, suggesting he would “say anything, no matter how divisive, if he is paid to do so.”