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Pardoned BitMEX founder funds UK right-wing political hub, report

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Pardoned BitMEX founder funds UK right-wing political hub, report

Pardoned BitMEX founder Ben Delo is funding a Westminster political hub that lends support to a network of controversial right-wing politicians and influencers, an investigation from The Guardian and HOPE not hate has revealed. 

The hub, known as “The Sanctuary,” is made up of a number of rooms overlooking Westminster Abbey to which politicians, race scientists, and anti-abortion campaigners are given access free of charge. The rooms are reportedly used for events, office work, and podcasting.

Right-wing MP Rupert Lowe used the hub to launch his Restore Britain party after he was ousted from Reform UK. 

The race science magazine Aporia, which has published articles on race and IQ, has also hosted events at The Sanctuary alongside the anti-woke author Eric Kaufmann, who spoke about “the problems with… black culture” and how people should be “comfortable with a natural level of inequality.”

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Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch have visited The Sanctuary to appear on right-wing podcast Triggernometry. 

Read more: BitMEX has now lost all US profits after founders plead guilty, lawyer says

A free speech festival promoting “anti-science, anti-expert, and anti-public health positions,” called The Battle of Ideas, uses The Sanctuary and has received £100,000 in funding from Delo. 

An annual summer party is hosted each year at the hub and attracts a host of right-wing figures. 

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Last year’s events saw the likes of former Conservative MP Michael Gove, former Reform UK Deputy Leader Ben Habib, Reform UK loyalists Matt Goodwin and James Orr, and Paul Coleman, the director of a right-wing Christian group that helped overturn the Roe v Wade legislation.

When Queen Elizabeth died, Delo, right-wing figure Jordan Peterson, and his wife, Tammy Roberts, watched the funeral from The Sanctuary. 

Delo doesn’t want The Sanctuary’s operations getting out

The Sanctuary takes great care to keep its operations under wraps, withholding its name from the building’s lobby plaques and telling users to keep quiet about the hub online. 

Delo was convicted for failing to implement money laundering checks at his crypto exchange that were compliant with the Bank Secrecy Act.

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Alongside his fellow BitMEX founders and the exchange itself, Delo was pardoned by US President Donald Trump last year as part of his attempts to appeal to the crypto industry. 

Hope not hate shared a photo of Delo’s BitMEX pardon sitting framed in the halls of The Sanctuary.

Read more: Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht but Silk Road deputy remains behind bars

Delo runs the hub alongside his chief of staff, Jeremy Hildreth, an American branding consultant and old Oxford friend.

Hildreth manages the day-to-day operations of The Sanctuary and has donated £26,755 in legal costs to Badenoch for an online harassment case in 2021.

The Sanctuary itself is decorated like a gentleman’s club, and is adorned with gothic architecture, a taxidermy penguin, pictures of Victorian colonists, and cabinets filled with expensive gin and champagne. 

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In one framed picture of Delo, there’s a letter from Claire Fox, who runs The Battle of Ideas, praising Delo as “our free speech hero.” A copy of Delo’s pardon from Donald Trump is also framed in the halls.

Delo has also portrayed himself as a generous philanthropist and says that he’ll donate half of his wealth to good causes. Delo claims he has donated £100 million, and earlier this month, he donated £20 million to a maths and physics institute. 

On top of free speech and public debate causes, he’s also reportedly donated to fields in neurodiversity and Commonwealth relations. Delo’s philanthropy efforts were also praised by Michael Gove, who said he was “proud to know” Delo. 

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on XBluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Crypto World

BPI sounds alarm on ‘backdoor’ for hardware wallets in Kentucky crypto bill

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Bitcoin Regulation, Hardware Wallet, United States, Self Custody

Kentucky House Bill 380, a state-level crypto regulatory bill, includes provisions that would force crypto hardware wallet manufacturers to build a “backdoor” into devices, Bitcoin (BTC) advocacy organization Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) has warned. 

The provisions require crypto hardware wallet manufacturers to provide recovery options for users’ seed phrases, and were added to the bill in a “last-minute” floor amendment, BPI said. The amended Section 33 of the bill reads:

“A hardware wallet provider shall provide a mechanism for, and assist any person who owns a hardware wallet that was provided by the provider with, resetting any password, PIN, seed phrase, or other similar information that is necessary to access the contents of the hardware wallet.” 

The sponsors of the legislation are state Representatives Aaron Thompson and Tom Smith.

The bill also proposes identity verification checks for users requesting a password, seed phrase, or PIN reset from a hardware wallet manufacturer. 

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Bitcoin Regulation, Hardware Wallet, United States, Self Custody
Kentucky House Bill 380, the crypto regulatory bill containing the proposed requirements for hardware wallet providers. Source: Kentucky Legislature

“The mandate is technologically impossible for non-custodial wallets. Hardware wallets are specifically designed so that no one, including the manufacturer, can access or recover a user’s seed phrase,” BPI said in response.

The provisions threaten the self-custody of private keys, which is a foundational feature of cryptocurrencies, according to BPI, which added that requirements like this push users toward centralized custodians that are susceptible to hacks and business failures.

Bitcoin Regulation, Hardware Wallet, United States, Self Custody
Source: Bitcoin Policy Institute

Related: BPI targets August for BTC tax relief, but warns time is running out

SEC officials defend the right to self-custody

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins said he is “in favor” of market participants having self-custody options, especially in cases where intermediaries would impose a financial or operational burden on the user.

In November 2025, Hester Peirce, an SEC commissioner and head of the regulator’s Crypto Task Force, reaffirmed the right to self-custody and financial privacy, saying that both were foundational to freedom.

Peirce asked the hosts of the Rollup podcast in November 2025: “Why should I have to be forced to go through someone else to hold my assets? 

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“It baffles me that in this country, which is so premised on freedom, that would even be an issue — of course, people can hold their own assets,” she said. 

Magazine: Bitcoin’s long-term security budget problem: Impending crisis or FUD?