Following last week\'s massive crypto heist in Japan, insurers are starting to dip a toe into the waters of digital currency insurance. Some major insurance companies around the world are prepared to balance the risks of the new tech against the potential profits in such a fast-growing field. At the moment these number only a few, such as Chubb, Mitsui Sumitomo and XL Catlin, but other companies are beginning to look into it.

After the late January debacle at Japanese trading exchange Coincheck, many companies trading in Bitcoin are now considering theft coverage, and where there is demand, there will surely be a supply. This sort of action is another minor step on the path of cryptocurrencies towards mainstream recognition. Investors have lost out big time from hackers, fraudsters and technical glitches, with many exchanges subsequently closing down, which is all grist to an insurer\'s mill.

The problem for insurers is that the industry is as yet too young, with its new technology and volatile markets, for any referential data which would help insurers estimate coverage. But the insurance industry has been there before, when they had to figure out cybersecurity for the internet, and it really boils down to finding a suitable model on which to base precedents.