In this podcast, Peter Hardy, Eleanor Ruiz and Claudia Gwinn provide an introduction to cryptocurrency insurance, including key issues such as crypto-related risk coverage (i.e., theft, hacking, fraud and operational mistakes), considerations in respect of valuation wording and notification requirements to the insurer in the event of loss. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello, and welcome to Insured Success, a podcast brought to you by Reed Smith's insurance recovery lawyers from around the globe. In this podcast series, we explore trends, issues, and topics of interest affecting commercial policyholders. If you have any questions about the topics discussed in this podcast, please contact our speakers at insuredsuccess@reedsmith.com. We'll be happy to assist.  Claudia: Welcome back to Insured Success. My name is Claudia Gwinn and I'm a junior lawyer in Reed Smith's insurance recovery group and I'll be in conversation today with my colleagues in the London team, partner Peter Hardy and counsel Ellie Ruiz. Today we're going to be discussing the cryptocurrency insurance market and in particular the types of crypto policies available and the risks they seek to cover, insured considerations as to the policy wording and them respective disclosures. And finally, making a claim under a crypto policy. So to start off, what does the cryptocurrency insurance market look like currently? What kind of policies are available? And what are the risks currently attaching to cryptocurrency and digital assets? Ellie: Hi, Claudia. So when we're talking about cryptocurrency insurance, there's probably two broad categories. There's coverage for assets that's available to consumers, For example, your individual, your corporate investor, and then there's insurance for the key stakeholders within the crypto industry, and that would include crypto custodians or exchanges. There's then various types of assets that crypto insurance might cover. There's a type of custodial insurance that might protect against sort of general loss as a result of hacking, theft, loss of funds. There's also the option to look under crime insurance policies. That's more directly relating to theft, potentially crime-related events, individual insider involvement. And then you can also look for some types of specific policies targeting risks that are directly related to being in this cryptocurrency environment. For example, a specific type of policy that addresses theft of an element of the software or hacking in particular based on the, relevant industry rather than a broader concept of crime or of general custodial insurance. The risks that we're looking at, those risks that are inherent when you're holding crypto assets, some of them are very new. It's a relatively new area and they're quite specific risks to this area that have to be considered. Those might include that this is an area where there's a lack of regulatory oversight. There's definitely market volatility that everyone is aware of that really affects the value of the cryptocurrency that might be being held. And there are also a whole different host of security concerns around encryption, how assets are held, and particularly on cryptocurrency platforms, that makes these systems vulnerable to a different type of attack than you might think about assets held in a bank account, particularly the collapse of FTX in November 2022. That made, I think, crypto asset holders and the public generally more aware of those risks and that there's a real need to protect these digital assets in as many ways as possible. And one of those ways is to look at taking out insurance. And it'll come as little surprise, I think, that one area that we've seen particular activity is that these crypto exchanges are a tempting target for hackers. There's the high value nature of the assets that are involved. And as I mentioned before, new potentially untested security. There might be new vulnerabilities that haven't yet been pro