The insurance industry is navigating both a soft market and a period of profound structural transformation.
The rapid pace of fintech development is forcing a reimagining of traditional risk assessment and boardrooms are looking for commercial opportunities.
For underwriters and brokers alike, the challenge lies in moving beyond the binary of risk avoidance toward a sophisticated understanding of how digitalisation reshapes financial infrastructure.
This is no longer about speculative fringes, it is about how the market responds and continues to innovate in the face of tokenisation and a growing digital client base.
At the heart of this shift is Gallagher, where the focus has moved toward bridging the gap between conservative capital and the high-growth digital asset sector.
Alan Chapman, Divisional Director, Financial Institutions at Gallagher, views this not merely as a new product line, but as a fundamental evolution of the broking role.
Strategic education
For the modern broker, operating in the digital asset space requires a departure from standard off-the-shelf placement.
“Brokers operating in the digital assets space must have a deep understanding of the insurance requirements in this fast moving and expanding sector,” he says.
Chapman argues that the role is now defined by a dual responsibility: guiding insurers as they develop their appetite for these risks, while simultaneously providing the reassurance and education necessary to secure capacity. This transition demands a granular level of industry intimacy.
“If we don’t fully understand the businesses we work with, we cannot provide meaningful risk transfer solutions,” Chapman says.
In this landscape, the broker acts as both a facilitator and an educator, helping both ends of the value chain, the fintech client and the insurer, navigate a landscape where regulation and exposure are evolving at different speeds globally.
Governance in the age of MiCA
As the regulatory environment tightens, particularly with the advent of MiCA-compliant requirements, the “scrutiny” applied to digital asset firms is now matching and exceeding that of established financial institutions.
Gallagher has positioned itself as a specialist in this compliance-led environment, developing bespoke products like the Crypto-Pro policy to meet specific jurisdictional demands. However, the risk profile is not limited to regulatory hurdles.
Digital asset businesses face significant exposures regarding personal information, which can lead to severe consequences, including targeted attacks on individuals known to hold substantial assets.
Chapman says: “As the value of crypto increases alongside institutional and governmental adoption, the risks to individuals also grow, creating a new target landscape for criminals”.
Bridging the fiat edge
The technical divide between “hot” and “cold” storage remains a primary focal point for market capacity.
While the specie market offers substantial limits for cold storage, often exceeding US $1 billion, hot wallet coverage remains a tighter market, typically serviced by adapted Financial Institution crime products where capacity is more constrained.
Gallagher’s strategy involves more than just indemnification. It focuses on active resilience. The firm has integrated specialist crisis management teams that utilise blockchain monitoring tools to trace misappropriated assets in real-time.
“Once assets reach the ‘fiat edge’ (e.g., a crypto exchange), they can be legally frozen, and recovery efforts can begin,” Chapman explains.
By embedding access to recovery specialists, many with backgrounds in national security and law enforcement, directly into insurance wordings, the firm is setting a new standard for operational response.
The institutional pivot
Perhaps the most telling indicator of market maturity is the changing posture of the incumbents.
“Even traditionally conservative insurers are now offering terms they would not have considered just a few years ago,” says Chapman.
This shift is being driven by the expansion of tokenisation into real-world assets and broader financial infrastructure, a move that is seeing mainstream financial institutions increasingly adopt these technologies.
The digital asset and capital market web3 sectors are now firmly on the radar of brokers, it seems. Success in this new era will depend on a market that remains “receptive and innovative,” supported by brokers who can act as a technical extension of their clients’ risk teams.
