UK-commissioned review urges temporary ban on crypto political donations
Philip Rycroft said a moratorium should be written into the Representation of the People Bill until safeguards and guidance are strengthened.
A UK government-commissioned review published Wednesday recommended a temporary moratorium on political donations made in cryptoassets, warning current rules leave openings for foreign financial influence. The report proposed legislating the pause through the Representation of the People Bill until stronger safeguards and statutory guidance are in place.
What the review recommends
The recommendation came from Philip Rycroft, a former senior civil servant, in an independent review commissioned by the UK government in December 2025 into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics.
Rycroft’s report set out a clear legislative route. “The government should legislate in the Representation of the People Bill to introduce a moratorium on political donations made in cryptoassets,” he wrote.
Why the review says crypto donations are hard to police
The review argued that cryptoassets can create a channel for foreign money to reach UK politics because regulation remains incomplete and tracing the “ultimate ownership” of some assets can be difficult.
It also flagged a practical enforcement problem. Donors could break a large contribution into multiple smaller transfers, potentially reducing scrutiny even when the overall intent is to make a sizable political donation.
The report highlighted how existing thresholds can widen the gap. Donations below 500 British pounds ($669) fall outside the normal permissibility test, it said, while formal reporting thresholds for political parties are higher.
Pressure is building ahead of the next election
Rycroft’s recommendation landed about a week after a separate warning from Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy.
That committee called for an immediate moratorium on crypto donations to political parties until the Electoral Commission, the UK body that oversees elections and political finance rules, produces statutory guidance ahead of the next general election.
Ethereum starts a post-quantum workstream with a 2029 target
Alongside the UK policy push, Ethereum developers on Tuesday launched a resource hub and a new “Post-Quantum” team aimed at preparing the network for future quantum computing risks.
Ethereum Foundation members backing the initiative said the group is planning protocol-level quantum solutions by 2029, with solutions targeting the execution layer, the part of Ethereum that processes transactions and smart contract execution, to follow.
The team framed the timeline as a coordination constraint rather than a near-term emergency. “Migrating a decentralized, global protocol takes years of coordination, engineering, and formal verification,” it said. “The work must begin well before the threat arrives.”
The initiative comes amid broader industry concern that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could eventually break today’s blockchain cryptography, raising fears around private keys and wallet security.
Tether says it will seek a first full Big Four audit
Tether, issuer of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDt (USDT), said in a Tuesday notice it will hire one of the “Big Four” accounting firms to conduct its first full audit of reserves.
Tether said the firm, which it did not name, would complete a “full independent financial statement audit” covering assets, reserves, and tokenised liabilities, along with an “assessment of Tether’s systems, internal controls, and financial reporting.”
Chief financial officer Simon McWilliams said the accounting firm was “selected through a competitive process,” and chief executive Paolo Ardoino positioned the audit as a trust and infrastructure issue. “For the hundreds of millions of people and businesses who rely on USDT every day, this audit is not just a compliance exercise. It is about accountability, resilience, and confidence in the infrastructure they depend on,” he said.
Tether did not disclose which Big Four firm it plans to hire, and it was not clear from the notice when the audit would be completed.
