The United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has sent a letter to executives of cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO warning them that they are potentially in violation of federal law due to false and misleading statements about the exchange’s insurance status. The agency has given the exchange 15 days to make corrections. The statement in question is found in the small print details of the exchange’s state money transmitter license information. The information for Rhode Island reads, “U.S. dollars held in your CEX.IO fiat currency wallet are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 per account.” The FDIC letter also noted that, if the …

Digital asset custody platform GK8 has partnered with USI Insurance Services to expand its insurance policy for institutional customers — a move the company said would incentivize banks and other financial institutions to start investing in cryptocurrency. The insurance policy offers up to $1 billion of coverage per client for digital assets stored in GK8’s cold vault and up to $125 million for assets stored in MPC custody, the company announced on Nov. 28. GK8 said the insurance caps are significantly higher than any other digital asset policies on the market today. Lior Lamesh, GK8’s co-founder and CEO, said the …

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation acting chair Martin Gruenberg said the agency does not back any crypto firms in the United States, nor does its insurance cover losses from tokens. In a Nov. 15 hearing of the Senate Banking Committee on the oversight of financial regulators, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez said lawmakers needed to “take a serious look at crypto exchanges and lending platforms” over risky behavior. Gruenberg responded to Menendez’s questions confirming there were “no cryptocurrency firms backed by the FDIC” and “FDIC insurance does not cover cryptocurrency of any kind.” FDIC insurance normally protects deposits at financial institutions …

United States President Joe Biden announced he would be nominating Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, acting chair Martin Gruenberg to assume the position as part of a five-year term. In a Nov. 14 announcement, President Biden said he intended to nominate Gruenberg, who has previously served as acting FDIC chair from 2005 to 2006, 2011 to 2012, and from February 2022 to the present. Gruenberg assumed the temporary position following the resignation of former chair Jelena McWilliams. According to FDIC regulations, a chairperson of the FDIC’s board of directors may serve for a term of five years following a …

Over the years, several cryptocurrency companies have claimed that deposits with them were insured by the United States Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as if they were regular savings accounts. While so far, no crypto firm has been able to offer depositors this type of insurance, some speculate it could be the key to mass adoption. The most notable case is that of bankrupt lender Voyager Digital, which saw regulators instruct it to remove “false and misleading statements” regarding FDIC insurance. Crypto exchange FTX has been a beacon of hope looking to backstop contagion in the …

A new insurance world is coming where smart contracts replace insurance documents, blockchain “oracles” supplant claim adjusters, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) take over traditional insurance carriers. Millions of poor farmers in Africa and Asia will be eligible for coverages like crop insurance too, whereas before, they were too poor and too dispersed to justify the cost of underwriting. That is the vision, anyway, on display in the recent Smartcon 2022, a two-day conference that sought to provide “exclusive insights into the next generation of Web3 innovation.” Subsistence farms, where families basically live off what they grow and almost nothing …

A global digital asset company says its revenue hit $250 million in the first half of 2022 — a 25% increase when compared with the same period a year earlier. Amber Group claims state-of-the-art trading infrastructure, effective risk management and a diverse client base has been instrumental to its profitability. Earlier this year, the platform completed a $200 million Series B+ funding round — with Temasek, Sequoia China, Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures among the participants. This helped the company achieve a valuation of $3 billion. A crucial driver for growth has been ensuring that it has the licenses it …

Insurance is key for financially securing important assets. Yet, the cryptocurrency sector — which is predicted to reach a global market size of $4.94 billion by 2030 — may be lagging behind when it comes to insuring digital assets. For instance, it’s been noted that less than 1% of all crypto investments are currently insured. This statistic is alarming, considering the rapid growth and high-risk profile associated with today’s cryptocurrency market. Ben Davis, team lead for digital assets at Superscript — a British startup and Lloyd’s of London-licensed insurance broker — told Cointelegraph that crypto has been marginalized when it …

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued cease and desist letters to five companies for allegedly making false representations about deposit insurance related to cryptocurrencies. FDIC issued a Friday press release disclosing cease and desist letters for cryptocurrency exchange FTX US and websites SmartAssets, FDICCrypto, Cryptonews and Cryptosec. The government agency alleges that these organizations misled the public about certain cryptocurrency-related products being insured by FDIC. “These representations are false or misleading,” the FDIC said in regards to “certain crypto-related products” being FDIC-insured or that “stocks held in brokerage accounts are FDIC-insured.” The regulator said these companies must “take …

United States-based insurers are the most interested in cryptocurrency investment according to a Goldman Sachs global survey of 328 chief financial and chief investment officers regarding their firm’s asset allocations and portfolios. The investment banking giant recently released its annual global insurance investment survey, which included responses regarding cryptocurrencies for the first time, finding that 11% of U.S. insurance firms indicated either an interest in investing or a current investment in crypto. Speaking on the company’s Exchanges at Goldman Sachs podcast on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs global head of insurance asset management Mike Siegel said he was surprised to get any …

The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem continues to struggle with the ongoing market volatility and after-effects of the Terra ecosystem collapse. Over the past week, major DeFi protocols showed signs of increased trading activity, with Uniswap breaching the $1 trillion trading volume mark. Terra remained the focus of most of the discussions around blockchain and crypto at the World Economic Forum (WEF), with analysts suggesting Terra was offering unsustainable yields. DeFi insurance protocol to pay out millions after Terra collapse, while interest in Ethereum Name Services (ENS) shattered new records. Top DeFi tokens by market cap had a mixed week of …

The insurance industry has a long history of providing vital support for major leaps in innovation. It’s no coincidence that the modern insurance industry and the industrial revolution arose in parallel. Indeed, it has been convincingly argued that the invention of fire and property insurance — in response to the Great Fire of London — lubricated the gears of capital investment that powered the industrial revolution and is likely the reason why it started in London. Through that first and each subsequent technological revolution, insurance has offered innovators and investors a safety net and served as an outside, objective validator …