Bitcoin Forum

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance is offering bitcoin exchanges around the world a new insurance policy. Insurance companies have historically insured bitcoin businesses with one-off policies made specifically for them, and many exchanges were unable to find any insurance.
The plan’s total theft cover ranges from ten million yen (US$88,500) up to one billion yen (US$8.85 million). It also covers loss from internal and external threats, including employee theft, mistakes, cyberattacks, and other unauthorized access.
Additional to the recovery amount, the policy comes with a range of damage control and prevention services. “In order to prevent damage caused by cyber attacks, targeted mail training and information leakage risk,” the plan’s announcement states, “we provide cyber risk countermeasure services such as security diagnosis and checklist for employees.”

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/insurance-polic-now-available-for-bitcoin-exchanges/

This is good news for bitcoin exchanges,it is a Japanese company so it seems reliable.I read article and they say if BitFinex is been purchase their insurance policy they will get back 12% of stolen amount.Unfortunately their maximum insurance policy cover 8.85$ million,so for some big exchanges it is not a complete solution.

In a world where hacking and theft happens every day this is something very positive for BTC.I think every exchange should do some kind of insurance and protect customer funds.

The article doesn't talk about the premiums involved. If the cost is too high, it could break the business model of bitcoin exchanges.

The article also mentions one interesting point.
The largest bitcoin exchange by USD volume, Bitfinex, was thought to be insured when it was hacked for over US$72 million worth of bitcoins. Customers thought that their coins were insured as Bitfinex advertised that all customer funds were held in BitGo wallets, which are covered.

So even if you think you are insured, there may be cases when the insurance cover doesn't kick in.  :)

It is high time all exchanges got insured, governments should make it mandatory for them...

We need no government intervention. What we need is a good decentralized exchange with no human interaction. The less human involvment, the better. Exchanges are like banks and we all know that by now.

how would any government organization interfere in bitcoin exchanges as per the current rules and regulations, may be there would be a law consisting this in the future when government starts to control the entire infrastructure , who knows what the future holds for bitcoin in this regard.Insuring an exchange is a very bold decision from the premium provider since all of the exchanges that has being hacked have not recovered anything as of now and the investigation regarding the hacks has not reached anywhere,it is a risky proposition

This is really great!

However, I am assuming if there is an inside job theft if they continue to cover the exchanges. They would have to prove a hack. Very interesting.

Interesting and good news.  In an insurance company near chicago I noticed in my policy jacket that you can now insure bitcoin.  This is great news considering so many organizations are ignoring Bitcoin.  Makes me wonder how many people are calling in for bitcoin insurance.

I can not agree more. While people are getting happy with the idea of exchanges insuring themselves against all kinds of possible scenarios, it also directly gives me a bad taste in my mouth as it will put exchanges in an easy to keep track of position (more than is the case already) for the governments and other parties.


People are basically demanding decentralized exchanges for a few years now, and so far nothing serious has popped up offering people what they are looking for. It just shows how difficult it is to get something like this to work for Bitcoin. If it was an easy job, we would have seen it by now already.

They are insuring the exchanges which I think is a great thing!

It's great at first glance, but it's not so great for your personal information as everything is constantly being logged and played to the insurer to stay up to date of everything. But if you don't care about this, then trading on insured exchanges will be a great addition for you. If you do care about your privacy, then it will be less great in the way that you know that your information lands into the hands of a third party.