Insurers avoid cryptocurrency firms linked to FTX as risk of contagion grows

19.12.2022

According to several market participants, insurers are denying or limiting insurance coverage to customers associated with the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, leaving digital currency traders and exchanges uninsured for losses from hacking, theft or lawsuits.

Insurers were already reluctant to take out asset protection and directors and officers (D&O) policies for cryptocurrency companies because of the lack of market regulation and unstable prices for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Now the collapse of FTX last month has heightened fears.

Insurers in London’s Lloyd’s and Bermuda’s markets are demanding more transparency from cryptocurrency companies about their impact on FTX. Insurers are also offering broad policy exclusions for any claims related to the company’s collapse.

Insurers are requiring clients to fill out a questionnaire asking if they invested in FTX or had assets on the exchange.

Lloyd’s of London, a broker, provides clients who have dealt with FTX with a mandatory questionnaire stating their risk percentage.

Exclusions that deny payment for any claims arising from FTX’s bankruptcy are contained in insurance policies covering digital asset protection and personal liability for directors and officers of cryptocurrency companies. Several insurers are pushing for a broad exclusion of anything related to FTX from their policies