Aon, the world’s 2nd largest insurance broker by revenues, has partnered with Metaco, a digital asset custody technology firm, to provide cryptocurrency insurance covers for its clients.
The announcement was made on Tuesday, where the group, mostly made up of European insurers (none of whom were named) will offer a crime insurance product to institutions using Metaco’s SILO solution for so-called hot and cold (online and offline) wallets.
Metaco Is Backed By A Big Name
SILO can help financial institutions protect their digital assets from the losses resulting from loss, damage, destruction or theft, Metaco said.
According to Aon, the policies cover losses on everything from natural disasters destroying the private keys kept offline in cold storage to third-party hacks of hot wallets connected to the internet. It did not disclose the dollar amount of coverage available.
This is Aon’s latest partnership with a crypto custody player, following tie-ups with San Francisco-based Anchorage and Vo1t, which employs former staffers of the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
Insurance is scarce for crypto held at custodians or exchanges, particularly with hot wallet. Nonetheless, the insurance industry has gradually responded to demand starting with cover for cold storage, which is similar to storing bullion or cash in a vault.
According to Jacqueline Quintal, the financial institution’s practice leader at Aon Risk Solutions, demand is indirectly driven by banks and other financial institutions interested in holding digital assets.
“Anyone who is speaking with institutions on the custody side or even from a trading perspective often finds themselves in the middle of a vendor management process that those firms put everybody through, and with that comes insurance requirements,” Quintal stated.
Established in 2015, Metaco is partly owned by Swisspost, Swisscom, SICPA and Avaloq. It aims to become “the trusted technology provider for financial institutions in need of highly secure, flexible and scalable digital asset management infrastructure.”
In future, the company expects to work with pure crypto exchanges, said CEO Adrien Treccani, who co-founded the company together with Nicholas Dorier, a Bitcoin Core contributor.
However, making insurance readily available to clients is a vital step now as stated here.
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