Reform UK has stripped crypto firms from its conference sponsor list. The move lands days after British police revealed a $1.4 million Bitcoin forfeiture.

Nigel Farage’s party is selling diplomats and manufacturers instead.

Reform UK Cuts Crypto Sponsors Before Birmingham

Reform UK’s annual conference opens in Birmingham next week. Last year the digital payments firm Zebec headlined as a key backer. This year no crypto company appears on the sponsor list.

Perks have gone too, with free tickets and access to senior figures also cut, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the arrangements.

It comes as a parliamentary probe is examining whether Farage should have declared £5 million from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based crypto investor. Farage’s crypto lobbying has drawn separate scrutiny this year.

Diplomats and Manufacturers Take the Stage Instead

Farage’s populist party holds just eight of 650 Commons seats, yet polls place it in contention for 2029.

Honorary treasurer Nick Candy is promoting foreign guests. Envoys from India, Italy, Poland, the UAE and the US are expected, alongside French National Rally leader Jordan Bardella.

“The scale and breadth of the diplomatic presence at the conference next week is a clear indication of how seriously Reform is being taken internationally,” Nick Candy, Reform UK honorary treasurer, speaking to Bloomberg.

However, not everyone is convinced. Renewable energy executives remain reluctant to appear, according to a City of London public relations executive. They fear legitimizing the party.

On its first business day, it sold more than 600 tickets, drawing JCB, TikTok and Heathrow.

So is Reform done with crypto? Not on paper. It has announced no policy changes regarding digital assets, and the retreat focuses on sponsors and perks rather than positions.

Birmingham will show a party managing its image while an investigation runs, not one abandoning crypto.

Police Traced 20.21 Bitcoin Back to 2016

Elsewhere but still in the UK, Avon and Somerset Police recovered 20.21 BTC, other crypto and money in a bank account, worth £1,032,487.86.

Investigators tied the funds to darknet marketplaces that ran from 2016 to 2019. These were hidden shopping sites, reachable only through anonymizing software, that sold drugs and facilitated human trafficking.

A blockchain keeps every transaction on a permanent public record, so coins moved in 2016 still leave a trail.

The owner had died before the forfeiture was completed. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, however, the case runs against the property, not the person.

It is the force’s largest crypto recovery since Britain introduced wallet freezing orders in April 2024. Bigger hauls exist, including a £114 million Bitcoin seizure.

Recovered funds go back into community and policing programs.

Source: BeInCrypto