Reform UK is preparing to sideline cryptocurrency companies at its annual conference next week and scale back the industry's access to senior party figures, following backlash over Nigel Farage's £5m gift from a bitcoin billionaire, City AM can reveal.

Reform was an early champion of the digital currency and tokenisation industries, which have been a fixture at previous conferences and party events.

However, an agenda for the conference shows the crypto sector is absent from the roster of corporate partners and the dozens of satellite events, as the party seeks to court more conventional corporate players.

The poll-topping party has also axed a series of perks previously offered to crypto executives, including free tickets and access to senior Reform figures, according to two people involved in this year's summit.

The approach marks a sharp departure from last year's gathering, when crypto payments firm Zebec was one of the flagship sponsors and the industry's priorities were discussed on stage by some of the party's most senior representatives. Home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf, who was then the party's efficiency chief, also interviewed the founder of blockchain-based lending platform Aave Labs as part of an event sponsored by the firm.

Reform cools on crypto firms

Accelerating digital asset adoption has been a key plank of Reform's economic pitch to voters. As recently as October, the party published a landmark 'Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill'.

The policy package, which Farage launched at a Las Vegas bitcoin festival, included a reduced 10 per cent rate of capital gains tax for digital assets and plans to establish a sovereign bitcoin reserve. Writing in City AM at the time, Yusuf hailed the drive as a path to making the UK a "crypto powerhouse". The bill is no longer available on the party's new-look website.

The retreat from the conference agenda comes as crypto policy in Westminster is increasingly being shaped by the incumbent government's own regulatory programme. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 brought cryptoassets within the regulatory perimeter, and the Financial Conduct Authority has been consulting on rules for stablecoins and wider digital asset markets, with the Labour government outlining plans for a phased regime — meaning the industry's engagement with power now runs as much through regulators as through party conferences.

"There has been a concerted effort to dial down digital assets and crypto" at next week's Birmingham conference, one person involved in the gathering told City AM.

Reform's sidelining of the industry comes as the party attempts to move on from months of scrutiny over its ties with two crypto-linked donors.

Last month, Farage called, and then won, a by-election in his Clacton constituency to stave off a parliamentary probe into a £5m gift from Anglo-Thai billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Harborne, worth an estimated £18bn, built the majority of his wealth from early bets on digital assets, including a 12 per cent stake in Tether – one of the world's most popular stablecoins. Reform has also been dogged by its longstanding relationship with 'Posh' George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster whose fortune was partly built from crypto trading and investments.

One party figure told City AM that the decision to remove perks for cryptoasset figures followed heightened interest in the party from more mainstream industries after its performance in May's local elections.

The conference will feature the inaugural Reform UK business day. Heathrow will host a 'lounge' for a second consecutive year – as it does at the conferences of most other political parties – while blue-chip firms including Google, Cadent Gas and Lloyds Bank are among those hosting panel sessions at its many fringe events. The shift in the sponsor mix will be watched closely by crypto firms as a signal of how much access — and policy appetite — they can expect from a party currently leading in national polls ahead of the next general election.

A spokesman for Reform UK said: "Over the last year, we have been building connections and having conversations with business and industry about how we can deliver critical infrastructure, boost investment, bring down energy costs and grow the economy.

"The surge in sponsorships and record industry turnout at this year's conference shows just how far we've come. Companies are engaging with Reform UK in unprecedented numbers because they take the prospect of a Reform government seriously. This year's conference will be our biggest and boldest yet."