$255 Million: Coinbase Confirms Extent of Crypto Insurance Coverage

Coinbase has revealed the details of its insurance arrangements for cryptocurrency held on customers' behalf, a rare move in an opaque market.

Lloyd's, which gathers under one roof a range of specialist insurance markets dealing with everything from crime and cyber attacks to natural disasters, is viewed as a seal of approval when it comes to underwriting potential losses of crypto assets.

Previously secretive about publicizing anything about insurance of digital assets, Lloyd's is steadily becoming more visible, for a certain class of crypto customer at least.

Of cover for crypto held in cold storage and went as far as naming the lead Lloyd's underwriter of the policy.

Much of Martin's post could be read as a veiled dig at BitGo, since he talks about "Recent news and announcements" around crypto insurance, suggesting a lot of "Confusion" still exists.

"We're glad to see that Coinbase is following our lead in bringing more transparency to the discussion of insurance for digital assets. Insurance is complex and transparency is essential for building trust."

As well as being more transparent about Coinbase's insurance cover, Martin took the opportunity to blog about some of the things the vex him about the nascent market for crypto insurance.

Hot wallet cover is provided specifically by the crime insurance market, which is different and separate from the cold storage variety, which is covered by the specie insurance marketplace.

"Companies should focus on insurance for value in flight. This means that exchanges and wallets should have sufficient crime coverage to fully cover their hot wallets."

Custodians should have enough crime insurance to cover normal outbound customer transaction sizes or enough to cover whatever assets are programmatically accessible if they're not using cold storage, he said.