BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo pledged 20 million British pounds ($27 million) to the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences (LIMS), ranking among the largest private donations ever made to a United Kingdom research institution outside Oxford and Cambridge, British magazine Times Higher Education reported on Tuesday.
The commitment includes $13.3 million upfront and $13.3 million to be released once the Mayfair-based institute matches the amount through additional fundraising, Times Higher Education reported. The gift launches a wider campaign aimed at building an $80 million endowment to secure LIMS’ long-term future, per the report.
“I would like to see LIMS winning Fields Medals and Nobel Prizes – they are already doing some world-class things and I want to help,” Delo told the magazine.
Delo said he chose to support LIMS over a larger university because it allows leading researchers to focus solely on research without teaching or administrative burdens.“They are also approaching research in an innovative way – even offering coaching on research,” he said, while criticizing UK’s “lacklustre and inconsistent approach to scientific funding.”
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Delo paid $10 million fine before receiving Trump pardon
Delo, who co-founded crypto exchange BitMEX in 2014, pleaded guilty in 2022 to US banking violations alongside his co-founders and paid a $10 million fine. He received a pardon from President Donald Trump in March 2025.
Delo is also a LIMS trustee, and has previously backed several causes, including neurodiversity, academic freedom and mathematical education and research. In 2025, he funded the creation of the Ben Delo Fellowship at the London Institute.
Founded in 2011 by physicist Thomas Fink, LIMS operates from the Royal Institution, in rooms once occupied by chemist Michael Faraday. The institute focuses exclusively on research, backing three-year fellowships in theoretical physics, pure mathematics and artificial intelligence. In recent years, it has supported exiled Russian and Ukrainian scientists and attracted researchers from the US.
Cointelegraph reached out to LIMS for comment, but had not received a response by publication.
Related: Top UK Labour lawmakers push to ban politicaldonations made in crypto
UK lawmakers call for temporary ban on crypto political donations
Last week, the chair of the UK’s national security committee called for an immediate temporary ban on political donations made in cryptocurrency, warning that such payments could enable foreign interference in British elections.
The move came after Reform UK received a record $12 million donation last year from early cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne, marking the largest single political contribution ever made by a living individual in Britain.
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