Blockchain and crypto insurance Blockchain and crypto insurance

Specialist blockchain, crypto and web3 brokers
Wide range of innovative covers
In-house claims

Brave new world. Brave new cover. Meet blockchain, crypto and web3's safety net.

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We insure the world’s innovators

CoinShares
Argent
CEX.IO
BVNK

From beginning to end, working with the Digital Asset team at Superscript was a smooth process that saw us decrease premium and increase cover. They even analysed alternative risk transfer methods, benchmarked us against our peers and created a report for us which allowed us to conduct feasibility studies into how best to insure ourselves. Best of all, we didn't have to explain the complexities of digital assets or our business model to them as they spoke our language straight from the start!

Coinshares

Bridging the gap between the TradFi insurance market and DeFi insurance services.

Expert insight

A common misconception is that digital assets insurance only pertains to insurance of the digital assets themselves, rather than other business risks.

There are a number of other policies and exposures web3 businesses should be thinking about, often our clients are surprised that they hadn’t thought about this before.

The biggest risks web3 companies face

With everyone so focused on their on-chain environments, the real business risks can go unnoticed.

Understand the real risks facing web3 companies and how to mitigate them in this article.

Blockchain, crypto and web3 FAQs

I’m a crypto business, what should I insure?

There are many different types of insurance that businesses in the digital assets industry need to think about. We typically place four main covers for our clients:

Professional indemnity/technology liability: Just because you work with zero trust architecture doesn’t mean it’s free of bugs or being used in an unintended way.

Professional indemnity (aka technology liability, or errors and omissions) protects you from allegations of a third party that they suffered a financial loss due to your professional or technology services.

This could be from an error in your software, losses arising out of your professional negligence when executing trades, unintentional copyright infringement or a breach of contract.

Cyber: Cyber won’t cover hacking of your private keys, but it will cover you for hacking of your data, ransomware attacks, cyber business interruption and denial of service attacks (among others).

If you process or hold sensitive and/or significant amounts of data, you should really consider insuring your company against the risks associated with running a digital business. This cover is fast becoming a ‘must have’ for digital businesses and is now being asked for in most commercial contracts.

Directors' and officers' liability (D&O): If you’re a director or officer of a company your personal assets are at risk for the decisions you make on behalf of the company. Whether it be trying to attract new investors or protect the existing ones, D&O is an absolute must in an ever changing regulatory environment.

Crime/Specie: The protection of your private keys is of the utmost importance. If you are holding private keys for yourself or others you should think carefully about insuring these and the risk management that comes around the holding of cryptographic material. We can provide insurance solutions for both hot and cold wallets, although hot is harder to find due to the higher risk nature of this architecture.

I have a cyber policy, does this cover me for theft of private keys?

No, cyber insurance is there to protect you for claims arising out of data breaches, ransomware, denial of service attacks and business interruption of your computer networks. Cyber insurance does not typically cover theft of private keys, this could be covered under crime insurance.

How much should I expect my policy to cost?

This depends on what type of policy you purchase and exactly what your business does. No two businesses are the same and risk profiles can be completely different even among similar business models.

As the insurance industry is small and education is lacking around digital assets, there are only a handful of insurers that are underwriting risks in this space. This means that premiums are typically higher than traditional technology or financial services businesses as underwriters need to make sure they charge a higher rate to pay for claims at a later date and justify their underwriting.

Although we can’t put an exact number on how much you should pay for your insurance without doing our pre-underwriting review and consultation, we are always educating new insurers and bringing new capacity into the market to ensure we provide the best available price with the best available coverage.

I need insurance for regulation, what do I need?

Most regulators need to see some sort of professional indemnity insurance in place as well as some cover for data risks and cyber attacks which would be covered under a cyber policy.

We are experienced in placing cover for some of the most common jurisdictions that regulate cryptocurrency including: UK, USA, Australia, Canada, and across Europe, including Malta and Gibraltar.

Limits will depend on the regulator, but if you’re a startup you’ll most likely need at least 1m in PI cover to pay claims arising out of your professional services.

You don’t need to start the policy until you are granted regulation, but often you’ll need a quote for the regulatory approval process.

How long does it take to get insurance for blockchain and crypto companies?

As demand is far outpacing supply in this new industry, we counsel our clients to start the process at the very least six weeks before you need the insurance to start.

We take an initial client call to understand your business and ask you a number of pre-underwriting questions to tease out specific risks with your business model that underwriters will be looking for.

We find that being proactive in our approach to asking the right questions usually allows us to be quicker than our competitors and provide the underwriters with a better understanding of the risk which will make sure you’re covered correctly.

As crypto is without borders my clients are all over the world, can you cover me anywhere?

Yes, we’ve placed insurance for businesses operating in many different countries with clients all over the world from Abu Dhabi to Sweden. Wherever you’re based we can help.

What web3 businesses do you insure?

You name it, we’ve seen it. Whether it be tokenisation platforms, NFT creators and dApps, exchanges, custodians, blockchain developers, DeFi, mining operations, metaverse and gaming and many more.

We’ve worked with many household names as well as the newcomers who will be shaping this space for years to come. Rest assured that your business will be at home in our community of web3 clients.

I’m an insurance broker with clients in the DLT space, can you help?

We work with brokers all around the world to help place their specialist cryptocurrency clients. We represent you to the London market and help get your clients the coverage they need, we can be as hands off or hands on as you’d like and a full pre-underwriting service to get the right information up front.

Want to learn more about the future of web3?

Watch Superscript’s Head of Digital Assets, Ben Davis’ talk at the AI Summit London during London Tech Week 2023. In this video, he argues that building AI solutions utilising web3 tools and principles will enable us to realise the incredible potential for it to completely change our world for the better. Watch it here.

Authorised by the FCA

The FCA supervises UK financial services firms to protect consumers. We are directly authorised and regulated by the FCA and our Firm Reference Number is 656459. These details can be confirmed on the Financial Services Register at www.fca.org.uk or by calling the FCA on 0845 606 1234.

Protected by the FSCS

If you are a business with an annual turnover under £1m, charity with an annual income under £1m, or trust with net assets under £1m, then you will be entitled to compensation from the FSCS in the unlikely event we cannot meet our obligations. Full details and further information on the scheme are available at www.fscs.org.uk.

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