WELLINGTON - No New Zealand political party has ever accepted a cryptocurrency donation, the Electoral Commission has confirmed, as a CNZ survey of all 13 registered parties finds the field split between flat refusals and cautious openness.
Cryptocurrency NZ put two questions to every registered party: whether they had ever accepted a crypto donation, and whether they were open to receiving one.
Eight of 13 parties responded.
The Electoral Commission, contacted separately, said it was not aware of any crypto donation ever being declared in a party's annual return - a searchable public record dating to 2007.
The finding lands in an election year in which hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders hold digital assets and no party has articulated a clear position on crypto.
The US Republican Party accepted Bitcoin donations ahead of the 2024 election.
No New Zealand equivalent has followed.
The 2026 general election is scheduled for November 2026
What the parties said
The responses divided into three camps: those who said no and meant it, those who said no but left the door open, and those who said yes.
ACT was unconditional. An ACT spokesperson said the party had never received a crypto donation but would welcome one.
"We'd be very happy to receive donations in crypto in the future," they said.
"We believe crypto will only become more important."
The Opportunity Party said it had never received a crypto donation but would consider it under the right conditions.
TOP party secretary Hayden Cargo outlined what that would require.
"We would need to establish the necessary infrastructure and processes, including a suitable wallet, systems to collect and verify donor information, compliance processes for electoral donation reporting, and a process for valuing and converting any cryptocurrency received into New Zealand dollars." he said.
"We would consider this if there was sufficient donor interest."
TOP party’s leader Qiulae Wong spoke at last weekend’s NZ Crypto Con, discussing ideas such as UBI (universal basic income) and seeking feedback on crypto policy ahead of the November 2026 election.
The party is polling at 6 per cent in the latest Roy Morgan survey - enough to secure seven seats in Parliament and enter the House for the first time.
NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party candidate Daymond Goulder-Horobin said the party had not accepted crypto donations but was actively building the infrastructure to do so, citing Electoral Act compliance, KYC requirements and banking risk as the primary barriers.
Requiring donors to go through third-party identity verification to make a crypto donation, he said, ran counter to one of cryptocurrency's founding purposes - enabling transactions without reliance on a trusted intermediary.
"Without a strict KYC process, we could not accept cryptocurrency donations without significant compliance risk" he said.
Goulder-Horobin said accepting crypto donations, even through a fully compliant provider, could expose the party's bank account to closure.
"The chilling effect is real and has affected others operating in the cryptocurrency space, including personal friends of the party's candidates," he said.
The party said it was developing policy to support lawful crypto use in New Zealand and fully supported cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web 3.0 innovation.
"We are open to accepting cryptocurrency donations in principle, and we will do so once we have the system in place to protect both the party and any donors from banking or legal risk" Goulder-Horobin said.
Labour, the Greens, New Zealand First, Te Pāti Māori and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party all said no to both questions.
New Zealand Labour Party general secretary Rob Salmond was unambiguous.
"No, we have never received a donation in cryptocurrency," he said.
"No, we have no plans to open a cryptocurrency account or accept cryptocurrency donations."
New Zealand First secretary general Holly Howard was equally brief.
"No, we have not accepted donations via cryptocurrency and do not intend to" she said.
A Green Party spokesperson said the party had never accepted a crypto donation and had no plans to do so.
"The Green Party only receives financial donations in New Zealand dollars, either through direct bank transfer or payment using our online donation pages" the spokesperson said.
"We value a transparent political donations system where the source of donations is clear."
Te Pāti Māori secretary Lance Norman raised a practical concern about valuation.
"I suspect the Electoral Commission would have a challenge recognising what value that would be recorded in electoral returns," he said.
The National Party did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Two of its MPs appeared at NZ Crypto Con last weekend on a panel discussing crypto regulation.
The Animal Justice Party, New Conservatives, Women's Rights Party and Vision NZ also did not respond.
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party declined on both counts, though noted it remains open to cash donations.
The now-deregistered Internet Party, founded in 2014 by Kim Dotcom with a strong digital-rights focus, was the only registered party to publicly engage with cryptocurrency during its active years.
Kim Dotcom did not respond to our request for comment.
New Zealand's Electoral Act governs how political donations - including cryptocurrency - must be recorded and disclosed.
The regulatory gap
The Electoral Commission confirmed to CNZ the existing legal framework applies to crypto donations but was not designed with them in mind.
"The Electoral Act 1993 does not have any specific rules or additional disclosure requirements about candidate or party donations received via cryptocurrency," an Electoral Commission spokesperson said.
"However, the general donation rules and definitions in the Electoral Act apply regardless of the form of a donation."
The key compliance challenge is identity verification.
Under the Electoral Act, parties cannot accept donations of more than $50 from overseas persons - a rule that becomes difficult to enforce when a donor sends cryptocurrency from an anonymous or pseudonymous wallet.
The Electoral Commission was direct about the risk.
"Parties and candidates who receive cryptocurrency donations exceeding $50 where the donor cannot be identified may be failing to take reasonable steps to ascertain a donation was not made by or on behalf of an overseas person," a spokesperson said.
In practice, that means a party accepting Bitcoin from an unknown wallet address could be in breach of electoral law without knowing it.
The Commission said it was not aware of any proposals to update the law.
Parties receiving crypto donations are required to record the market value in New Zealand dollars at the time of receipt and disclose them in annual returns like any other donation.
A review of every registered party's public donation pages found no crypto wallet addresses or digital payment options anywhere. All parliamentary parties accept only New Zealand dollar donations via bank transfer or credit card.
In New Zealand, political parties have long been able to accept donations of land, goods, services and other non-monetary items under the broad definition in the Electoral Act - a framework that has technically allowed Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency donations since at least 2009.
No party has ever done so.
NZ Crypto Con drew nearly 1800 attendees to Auckland last weekend.
The crypto voter bloc
As of April 2026, the IRD has identified 355,000 unique crypto-asset users in New Zealand. These users have undertaken around 57 million transactions with a total value of approximately $36 billion.
ACT and NZ Outdoors & Freedom are the only parties to explicitly welcome crypto donations and signal further development on record.
National sent two MPs - Joseph Mooney and Ryan Hamilton - to discuss crypto regulation at last weekend’s NZ Crypto Con, but did not respond to questions about its donations position.
In contrast, The Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong spoke at the same convention and the party has confirmed it would consider crypto donations under the right conditions.
No party has published a dedicated crypto policy.
Blockchain NZ has held ongoing discussions with MPs across Labour, National, ACT, and NZ First through initiatives like the Parliamentary Digital Assets Working Group.
With November approaching, the crypto voter bloc remains unclaimed territory.
In the US, Donald Trump accepted Bitcoin donations and spoke at a Bitcoin conference ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The Republican Party became the first major US political party to formally accept crypto donations.
Crypto is now a single-issue voting concern for a growing slice of the electorate - in the US and here.
In the United Kingdom, the Labour government imposed an immediate moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to all political parties in March 2026, following a government-commissioned review into foreign financial interference. Reform UK - the first British party to formally accept Bitcoin donations - was the primary target of the move.
New Zealand's parties have not moved in that direction.
The question of which registered party will be first to accept a cryptocurrency donation - and declare it - remains open.
Heading into November 2026, no one has moved.