Insurance Giant Betting on Crypto Custody

Kingdom Trust, a US-based regulated custodian of various financial assets, has just secured insurance for the digital assets it holds in custody through Lloyd’s of London, the centuries-old specialist insurance market, according to a statement from the custodian.

The newly insured digital asset custody service is reportedly aimed at institutional investors seeking to enter the crypto space. According to Matt Jennings, CEO of Kingdom Trust, trusted third party custody by a recognized name in the industry has been “a top priority and critical hurdle for institutions to invest in the digital asset markets.”

The public trust company, which claims to be the first regulated institution to offer “qualified custody for digital asset investments” provides custody for more than 100,000 clients with over USD 12 billion in assets under its custody.

Kingdom Trust’s crypto custody service, which holds assets in “cold storage” on behalf of financial institutions, originally served only four digital assets, but has now been expanded to cover more than 30 of the most popular digital assets, with the company saying that “many more” are coming.

Earlier this year, it was reported that financial institutions and trading firms entering the crypto space have had difficulties getting sufficient insurance coverage for their activities. According to Hillik Nissani, chief operating officer at Cryptalgo, a support firm for institutional trading, the number of exclusions in the policies available today make them “close to useless” for most companies.

In another example, South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb reported that they were “unlikely to receive a payout” from insurance companies following a USD 32 million hack back in June.