Crypto tycoon commits £20m to another charity after recent large donation

A A philanthropist and founder of a global cryptocurrency exchange has pledged £20m to a maths and science charity after recently donating £25m to a foundation he started.

Ben Delo, who founded BitMEX in 2014, has donated £10m and promised an extra £10m in matched funding to the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences (LIMS).

LIMS announced this week it is aiming to secure a £60m endowment to become one of the world’s premier research centres amid UK and international science funding cuts.

Ananyo Bhattacharya, LIMS’ chief science writer, said that the timing of when the remaining money would come in depends on how quickly the charity can raise the £10m matched by Delo.

Bhattacharya added that the target for LIMS, which recorded expenditure of £2.26m and income of £907,000 in 2024, is to raise the full £60m over 12 months.

Delo said: “I see this endowment campaign as spearheading a movement to address the UK's lacklustre and inconsistent approach to scientific funding.

“I am confident that with the backing of this endowment … the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences will be in a position to drive forward its cutting-edge research.”

Thomas Fink, Lims’ founding director, welcomed Delo’s donation: “With Ben Delo’s backing, and the support it will catalyse, we will build a permanent home for the world’s best theorists to do their life’s work.”

Last month, Delo announced a £25m donation to the Sheila Coates Foundation, an English autism charity he founded in 2020, to form its endowment.

Delo, who made his fortune through the cryptocurrency exchange, was pardoned by Donald Trump in March 2025 after serving a 30-month probation sentence.

This followed his guilty plea to violating the United States’ Bank Secrecy Act in 2022.

LIMS recorded expenditure of £2.26m and income of £907,000 in 2024.

In its latest accounts, published in October last year, Lims acknowledged that its balance sheet suggested that 2024 was “disappointing” but said the charity had endeavoured to broaden its fundraising streams.

“This includes a new emphasis on sponsored and endowed posts,” the report stated.

LIMS’ “most significant” prior donor was the Khodorkovsky Foundation which made a gift of £450,000 in 2024, matching its donation for the year before.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who was Russia’s richest man, has also supported Lims with donations since 2022.

George Hayes is a reporter at Civil Society.