insurance

CoreWeave, an AI cloud service provider supported by NVIDIA, is seeking to attract funding from insurance companies to reduce the financing costs of purchasing AI chips and building infrastructure. Co-founder Branning McBee stated that the company plans to raise funds through methods such as chip-backed loans, with financing exceeding $35 billion this year.

AI insurance startup Harbor AI ended its stealth mode on October 14, announcing the completion of a $10 million seed round financing, led by Base10 Partners, AbstractVC, and 8vc, with participation from RestiveVC, NFX, iEndeavors, Kibo Ventures, DidacLee, MVP Ventures, and others.Harbor AI was co-founded by Elechi, Cristian, Luis, and another co-founder, positioning itself to provide insurance for the agent economy. The company believes that as AI agents take on responsibilities traditionally held by humans, the sources of risk are shifting from human decision-making to machine behavior. Its goal is to make such risks measurable, manageable, and insurable, thereby creating a new category of insurance.

According to CoinDesk, data from Swiss Re shows that natural disasters caused $220 billion in economic losses last year, with insurance covering only $107 billion, while the rest was borne by households, businesses, and governments. Catastrophe bonds allow insurance companies to transfer the financial risks of hurricanes, wildfires, or earthquakes to capital market investors. According to an Artemis report, as of June this year, the outstanding size of the catastrophe bond market reached $65.6 billion, with new issuances in the second quarter amounting to $11.3 billion, setting a record high for a single quarter.Bermuda-based law firm Harneys, which focuses on global insurance business, plans to issue tokenized catastrophe bonds in early next year in collaboration with the tokenization platform dropRWA, with each token representing legal ownership of the catastrophe bonds. This scheme is built on the traditional market, where catastrophe bonds were primarily aimed at specialized funds and large institutions, with many products having a minimum investment amount of $250,000 or more. Both parties are considering structures that can accommodate smaller beneficiary interests, but they still need to comply with securities, insurance, and investor protection regulations.Henry Tucker from Harneys stated that the tokenized structure will not turn disaster coverage into arbitrary retail investments, and the funds will be entirely used to cover specific insurance risks. He pointed out that risks such as flooding and typhoon coverage in Southeast Asia are difficult to insure through traditional reinsurance companies, and specialized underwriters can use the tokenized structure to raise funds for single, specific risks. The World Bank arranged $200 million in hurricane coverage for Jamaica in May.

Meanwhile co-founder and CEO Zachary Townsend stated that the company has completed a $37.5 million funding round from existing investors, led by Bain Capital Crypto, with participation from Haun Ventures, Framework, Pantera Capital, Digital Currents, and Apollo Global. The company has raised over $180 million in total, and this round of funding will be used to meet the demand for BTC life insurance from families in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.Meanwhile will launch the BTC Life 1-Pay product for customers outside the United States in early 2026, allowing users to pay premiums in Bitcoin as a one-time payment, receiving a guaranteed death benefit valued in Bitcoin for life. After the first year, up to 90% of the policy value can be borrowed, with no repayment plan. The company has announced partnerships with 15 brokers serving affluent families, covering Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Switzerland, with premium income expected to more than double year-on-year this year.

The DeFi insurance protocol Firelight has begun underwriting, with its insurance payouts backed by 50.02 million XRP staked on the Flare network. The first batch of underwritten positions is directed towards two Sentora vaults.According to the arrangement, relevant claims will be adjudicated by a coalition of five institutions with a three-fifths majority vote, and the audit report for the underwriting contracts is currently marked as forthcoming.

For the week ending September 26, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States was 197,000, lower than the expected 200,000, and the previous value was revised from 197,000 to 198,000.

According to the Financial Times, Nvidia (NVDA.O) is seeking help from insurance companies to diversify the risks associated with artificial intelligence development.

Michael Saylor published a long article titled "Prescriptions for Prosperity in the Digital Economy," stating that artificial intelligence will significantly enhance the productivity of individuals and businesses, thus necessitating a more free environment for creating, financing, owning, and trading assets. He suggests establishing a "Digital Bill of Rights" for digital assets, which centers on granting individuals and businesses the rights to create, issue, custody, transfer, and use digital assets, while providing fundamental protections in financial privacy, asset ownership, and market access.Saylor believes that digital intelligence will drive the birth of a large number of new enterprises, and financing costs, complexity, and time costs should be reduced, while improving capital formation efficiency through means such as digital tokens. He proposes a goal of enabling 10 million new enterprises to secure financing, while also establishing clear issuance rules and risk-matched disclosure requirements.Regarding the digital dollar, Saylor advocates for allowing banks, fintech companies, and technology platforms to compete more fully in the digital dollar product space and for issuers to compete around yields. He believes that the U.S. can further expand the global reach of the dollar by allowing companies to develop more competitive dollar digital products.For Bitcoin, Saylor defines it as "digital capital," advocating for allowing banks to custody Bitcoin under clear rules and use it as collateral for providing credit, while also establishing a viable path for insurance companies to incorporate digital capital into their balance sheets and product designs.He specifically mentions that the Basel Accord applies a 1250% risk weight to certain crypto asset exposures, arguing that regulators should reassess the relevant capital requirements based on the actual risks of digital assets and specific business activities.

Chris Ahn, a partner at Haun Ventures, stated that the insurance industry is massive, with global premiums accounting for about 7% of the world's GDP, which is approximately $7.8 trillion annually, exceeding Germany's GDP. Insurance covers nearly all households and businesses, but mature economies have seen almost no new giants emerge for decades, as larger balance sheets are better able to absorb losses.Ahn noted that three major transformations are opening up opportunities: AI agents can reduce underwriting and claims processing from days to hours, lowering expense ratios and enabling quicker quotes; stablecoins can fill the gap in life insurance and annuities in emerging markets, with a supply of about $300 billion, approximately two-thirds of which is held by individuals in emerging markets.

The four major life insurance companies in Japan (Nippon Life, Dai-ichi Life, Sumitomo Life, Meiji Yasuda) reported a quarter-on-quarter increase of 7% in domestic bond holdings' unrealized losses for the second quarter of 2026, reaching a record $96 billion, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of increase, with total unrealized losses growing by more than twice during this period. Japanese life insurance companies typically hold government bonds and other securities to maturity to match long-term insurance liabilities. In May of this year, the yield on Japan's 30-year government bonds broke 4.0% for the first time since this bond was issued in 1999, raising market concerns that the Kishida government may increase fiscal spending. Analysts point out that if there is a surge in policy cancellations, insurance companies may be forced to sell their holdings prematurely to meet payouts, which would put pressure on their portfolios and earnings. The pressure facing Japanese financial institutions is intensifying.

According to Caixin, as the CRS information exchange becomes normalized, tax authorities can fully obtain data on dividends and cash value from overseas insurance policies, gradually filling the gaps in tax administration. The taxation of insurance benefits from overseas income has now been initiated.In addition, the CRS, as the "eye in the sky" of the global tax system, is also being upgraded according to schedule, with CRS 2.0 approaching. Key changes include incorporating crypto assets, central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and specific electronic currency products into the definition of financial assets, aligning with the trend of digital assets gradually merging with the mainstream financial world. Overall, from multiple dimensions such as overseas stock trading, overseas insurance, and offshore trusts, the iteration of CRS 2.0 and the tightening of overseas income tax collection mechanisms resonate with each other, mutually supporting and enhancing the effectiveness of cross-border tax source regulatory constraints.

According to official news, Websea has completed a major upgrade of the contract insurance airdrop rules on July 30, 2026. After the upgrade, the insurance α pool will airdrop a fixed amount of 1 USDT for new nodes each period, and the insurance β pool will airdrop a fixed amount of 0.7 USDT for new nodes each period, with a maximum of 100 airdrops for both pools, and the total amount is fixed and transparent.Websea's contract insurance aims to provide an additional risk buffer for every opening position, helping users reduce risk concerns amid fluctuations in the derivatives market. This upgrade focuses on simplifying the rules and enhancing transparency, allowing users to calculate the amount for each period, the number of airdrops, and the total cumulative amount in advance, without facing fluctuating variables.

According to i24NEWS, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Gulf Maritime Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Maritime Services Administration, which provide insurance policies approved by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz and accept payments in digital assets such as Bitcoin to evade sanctions.OFAC also sanctioned eight vessels of a shadow fleet transporting Iranian crude oil and petroleum products and their affiliated companies, including Well Sail, Lily, Al Salmi, Breeze V, Natsumi, Crystal, Nireta, and Yehope. Since the beginning of this year, OFAC has sanctioned over 100 vessels related to the Iranian shadow fleet.

On June 8, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO) sent a letter to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Travis Hill. The letter pointed out that blockchain-related financial products and services have significantly increased, and blockchain technology has been placed on the high-risk list. U.S. GAO recommended establishing a relevant coordination mechanism to assist regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in jointly identifying risks and timely implementing regulatory responses.In addition, according to the GENIUS Act passed last year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is the primary regulatory agency overseeing stablecoin issuers under banks. U.S. GAO also suggested that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation rotate case managers assigned to banks to reduce threats to independence. The collapse of three banks related to the cryptocurrency industry in 2023 raised questions about whether regulatory agencies took sufficient action.

According to GlobeNewswire, global insurance and risk management giant WTW announced the acquisition of the digital asset insurance platform Redefind to strengthen its digital asset protection service layout.According to the disclosure, Redefind provides an end-to-end cryptocurrency and digital asset insurance access platform. WTW plans to first launch a non-custodial loss recovery insurance scheme in the UK to support forensic investigations, asset tracking, and legal recovery related costs for digital assets that are stolen or lost.

Drift Protocol stated on platform X that after the protocol is restored online, users who have staked in the Insurance Fund will be able to withdraw their corresponding shares normally. The Insurance Fund is designed to maintain the protocol's solvency in the event of liquidation or bankruptcy. Since the protocol was paused before losses were completed through normal liquidation or bankruptcy processes, the Insurance Fund was not affected by the related vulnerabilities or attacks.Drift Protocol added that the assets of the protocol's own Insurance Fund will be used to support system restart and user recovery, and plans to publicly disclose the relevant on-chain addresses so that the community can track the use of funds and subsequent deployments.

According to Bloomberg, Iran has begun to launch a Bitcoin-based shipping insurance arrangement for the Strait of Hormuz to address the current high-risk navigation environment in the strait.Recently, Iran has introduced a maritime insurance platform called "Hormuz Safe," which provides digital insurance services for vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz and allows payments in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.Against the backdrop of escalating U.S.-Iran conflicts and risks in the Strait of Hormuz, the costs of war insurance for ships have surged significantly. Bloomberg previously reported that the insurance costs for some vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz have now risen to about 5% of the vessel's value.