Cryptocurrency Exchange Bitstamp Adds Lloyd’s-Backed Crime Insurance Policy

Bitstamp, a cryptocurrency exchange, has expanded the insurance offered to its customers with an additional crime insurance policy.

The crime insurance policy is offered by specialist insurance brokers, Paragon International Insurance Brokers in coordination with Woodruff Sawyer, and underwritten by various insurance companies and certain syndicates at Lloyd’s of London.

The policy covers an array of crime-related cases, such as employee theft, loss while the assets are stored at any premises, loss in transit, loss caused by computer fraud or funds transfer fraud, and loss related to legal fees and expenses.

According to Jeff Hanson, senior vice president at Paragon, traditional insurance policies do not translate directly into digital assets. The new policy fit the bespoke requirements of exchanges such as Bitstamp.

Bitstamp stores 98% of its digital assets offline with BitGo, a provider of institutional digital asset storage products. These offline assets were already insured by BitGo’s own insurance policy. With the new crime insurance policy supplementing this existing coverage, Bitstamp now offers further protection for the assets it manages on behalf of over 4 million customers worldwide, including assets in transit and assets held in its hot wallets.

Miha Grčar, global head of Business Development at Bitstamp, said that introducing an additional crime insurance policy allows the company to expand coverage to the assets held at Bitstamp and to protect customers in a large array of scenarios.

Bitstamp offers blockchain security solutions such as cold storage and MultiSig wallets, and secures both existing customers and enables more risk-averse players from traditional finance to enter the digital asset market. By offering additional insurance coverage, the exchange said it is further strengthening the bridge between crypto and traditional finance.

Topics Fraud Excess Surplus Lloyd's