CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 80.96% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Open platformOpen platform

Standard Chartered and SBI back crypto insurer Soter as funding reaches $23.5 million

By CoinDesk

Standard Chartered’s venture arm and Japan’s SBI Group have invested in cryptocurrency insurer Soter Insure, joining a funding round expected to bring the company’s total backing to $23 million plus more than 500 BTC ($38.4 million) and 2,000 ETH ($4.5 million).

The investment takes Soter's Series B raise to around $66 million based on bitcoin and ether's current prices.

SC Ventures and SBI joined the Galaxy-led round, whose earlier investors included CoinBase Ventures, Franklin Templeton and Brevan Howard Digital, Soter announced on Thursday.

The investment comes as bank and asset managers increase their use of cryptocurrencies but face the risk of losing millions to hacks, theft and software failures. Soter sells insurance against those potential losses, including policies that pay claims directly in bitcoin or ether rather than dollars.

"Any BTC or ETH we have raised along the way has been used to fund insurance programs denominated in that native currency and not as working capital in the general operating account," Soter founder and CEO Henson Orser told CoinDesk.

Orser said the company can insure losses of up to $5 million, 200 BTC or 2,000 ETH, using its own assets. For larger policies, it works with other insurers to share the risk. Those funds are kept in separate accounts and held in cold storage at regulated custodians, he added.

Abu Dhabi-based Soter operates under a Bermuda insurance license that allows it to insure risks in cryptocurrencies as well as traditional currencies. Its bitcoin and ether insurance programs are funded with the same currencies used to pay claims.

Soter also received full license approval from Dubai's financial regulator, adding to its regulated operations in Bermuda. The company, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, has offices in London, New York and Dubai.

The investment follows Binance's $6.3 billion hack on Oct. 29 and a reported $133 million theft involving French bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa.

"We've seen a slight hardening in the market for crime through the latest incidents, but the market is still evolving," Orser said, referring to rising insurance prices for theft-related losses.

The insurer also acknowledged that the industry has yet to settle how policies should treat losses caused by autonomous AI agents, which can execute transactions on behalf of users.

"Rogue agents are very much a hot topic at the moment," Orser said in the announcement, adding that insurers are still working out whether such incidents should be covered or excluded as operator error.

"Banks can't scale in digital assets without the risk protection they rely on everywhere else, and today that protection is still scarce."

Soter plans to use the investment to increase the amount of insurance it can provide and expand in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

Capital.com is an execution-only brokerage platform and the content provided on the Capital.com website is intended for informational purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the products or securities to which it applies. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided.

The information provided does not constitute investment advice nor take into account the individual financial circumstances or objectives of any investor. Any information that may be provided relating to past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results or performance.

To the extent permitted by law, in no event shall Capital.com (or any affiliate or employee) have any liability for any loss arising from the use of the information provided. Any person acting on the information does so entirely at their own risk.

Any information which could be construed as “investment research” has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication.