Munich Re has announced a new partnership with Curv, a cryptography firm for the digital economy, to provide insurance protection of up to $50m for digital assets in Curv’s Institutional Digital Asset Wallet Service.

The arrangement will provide Curv with the financial capability to pay for losses of crypto assets, with insurance coverage available to customers through a simple opt-in solution.

The insurance for Curv will be underwritten by a primary insurance carrier of Munich Re Group, following a thorough audit of Curv’s cryptography, implementation, quality assurance, deployment and security procedures.

“The novel cryptographic methods deployed in Curv’s Institutional Digital Asset Wallet Service reduce the risks associated with holding digital assets,” said Ali Kumcu, Head of Cyber Innovation and Services, of Munich Re.

“Their approach enables us to underwrite a policy that covers customer-controlled wallets in Internet-connected settings,” he explained.

“We are delighted our partnership with Team8 got us connected with Curv to develop this solution together. For us, this is another proof point that this partnership is very valuable to all involved parties and that our commitment to build meaningful cyber solutions leads to such fruitful outcomes.”

Coverage for digital assets held in wallets connected to the Internet has previously been limited and expensive, with the risks associated with securing private keys spread across different insurance policies.

However, Curv has developed multi-party computation (MPC) protocols to sign blockchain transactions in a more secure, distributed way, meaning digital assets cannot be stolen from its Wallet Service with a single cyber breach or even through insider collusion.

“We are excited to partner with an insurance powerhouse such as Munich Re to enable institutions to confidently integrate digital assets into their portfolios.” said Itay Malinger, co-founder and CEO of Curv.

“This unique risk transfer solution marks a significant industry milestone in the provision of digital asset insurance,” he continued.

“Managing digital assets with Curv’s Institutional Wallet Service, provides customers the peace of mind that comes with an insured service that delivers state-of-the-art cryptographic security, operational simplicity and the flexibility of the cloud.”