NYDIG raised $100 million from insurance companies Thursday as the institutional crypto shop previewed its latest business venture: bitcoin insurance products.
Liberty Mutual and Starr Insurance joined NYDIG’s “growth capital round” alongside other unnamed property and casualty coverage firms. NYDIG raised $200 million just last month from MassMutual, New York Life and others.
Also Thursday, NYDIG tapped industry veterans Mike Sapnar, CEO of Transatlantic Reinsurance, to lead its global insurance solutions wing. Matt Carey of annuity marketplace Blueprint Income will lead the U.S. effort, NYDIG said.
The insurance hires and investment partners – and the fact that NYDIG has now raised $300 million in two months – speak to the New York firm’s aggressive and multifaceted bitcoin expansion plan. It is now gearing up to make bitcoin insurance plays with financial backing from some of that industry’s most visible names.
What those products might look like was not entirely clear at press time. In a statement, NYDIG Executive Chairman Ross Stevens hinted “new bitcoin-denominated products for global insureds” were in the works.