Lloyd’s of London has approved insurer Evertas to become one of its coverholders.
This designation, said Evertas, will allow it to expand access to insurance products relating to cryptoassets. As a Lloyd’s coverholder, Evertas will provide insurance capacity to cryptoasset investors.
J. Gdanski, CEO of Evertas, said: “The lack of insurance capacity plaguing [the crypto industry] has hindered growth and liquidity by keeping many institutions from entering the market. The addition of the new capacity, which Evertas will offer as a Lloyd’s coverholder, will go down as an important milestone in the history of crypto.”
A Lloyd’s coverholder is able to to write and service policies covering risk in geographies or niche sectors requiring high levels of expertise.
Evertas said it would use its knowledge of cryptoasset risk to write policies on behalf of Lloyd’s syndicate member Arch Insurance, which served as sponsor of the Evertas coverholder application.
The subject of insurance for cryptoassets has gained significant traction recently, given the increasing pace of high-profile crypto exchange hacking incidents – estimated at over $4bn USD in 2021 alone, in addition to recent Congressional hearings in which the problem of uninsured custodial wallets was examined at length.
This is despite the recent falls in the value of Bitcoin, which fell from 18 January with only a minimal recovery. That followed steep falls from the middle of November. In addition, the Facebook-backed Diem Foundation has abandoned its own currency, also titled ‘Diem’, but which was originally known as ‘Libra’.
In a press statement, Gdanski said that in the interest of providing as much crypto policy capacity as possible, Evertas looks forward to establishing relationships with additional Lloyd’s syndicates and other insurance carriers.
The Chicago-based company, founded in 2017, focuses on covering the full spectrum of crypto risks for institutional holders of cryptoassets and blockchain technology, including exchanges, custodians, traditional financial institutions, funds, family offices, corporations, miners, and ultra-high net worth individuals.
