Crypto wallet and custodian BitGo today said it had obtained a policy of 'Excess Specie Insurance' through a global insurance marketplace. The new offering allows users to purchase their own dedicated excess limits above BitGo's $100 million policy, ensuring an additional layer of protection.
BitGo already allows its users to cover up to $100 million worth of their digital assets held in their accounts with the Blockchain security firm.
The new program is led by the Canopius Specie Consortium via a group of Lloyds of London and other European insurers. Lloyd's of London provides even wider coverage for other crypto firms, which secures its wallets against hacks, insider theft by employees, and loss of keys needed to unlock the funds.
Insurance is scarce for digital assets held at custodians or exchanges, but the insurance industry has gradually responded to the demand, starting with cover for cold storage.
Cryptocurrency wallets are attractive to hackers as they have a single centralized point of failure, making them prone to the same security issues faced by millions of web applications globally.
Crypto.com, which provides crypto-related Visa cards, wallets, and portfolio building services, has become one of BitGo's first clients to take advantage of the Dedicated Customer Excess limits policy.
Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com said, "BitGo carries a robust insurance program, elevating the scope of protection for our digital assets in their custody and providing further assurance to our customers that their funds are safe and protected."
Secure access to crypto markets
Founded in 2013, BitGo operated originally as a bitcoin wallet provider but then branched out into other Cryptocurrencies and now supports multiple altcoins, including Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, and Royal Mint Gold. In April 2018, BitGo launched support for ERC20 tokens, and in July, it added 57 coins and tokens.
BitGo's patent multi-signature wallet technology has attracted institutional players because it offers an enterprise-grade custody service for their assets as well as application programming interface access to its underlying security platform. BitGo's multi-sig e-wallets require a transaction to have two or more signatures before it can be executed, a security layer that reduces the risk of fraud.
In 2018, BitGo raised $15 million in new funding, led by Goldman Sachs and Galaxy Digital Ventures LLC, the venture capital firm founded by the billionaire Mike Novogratz.
