Team Rizzo, which operates subnets and validator services on Bittensor, has secured $25 million in blockchain-based insurance coverage against hacking risks. As reported by Coindesk, the coverage was arranged by Native, a digital asset insurance broker and specialist, to protect Rizzo’s validator services and machine learning businesses on Bittensor, a popular AI-driven cryptocurrency network. This coverage is designed to protect against smart contract hacks, which could lead to the loss of tokens used to validate the network’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
This development comes as hacks continue to pose significant risks in the cryptocurrency space, especially in sectors like decentralized finance (DeFi) and staking, where insurance options are still limited. Last week, Bybit, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, lost $1.5 billion to hackers linked to North Korea.
Founded in 2019, Nexus Mutual provides blockchain-based insurance, incentivizing its community to deploy assets into syndicates that back crypto-related risks. Native, which holds one of the largest capital pools on Nexus Mutual, also facilitates access to traditional insurance markets, such as Lloyd’s of London, for certain types of crypto-related covers.
The speed with which Native arranged the $25 million coverage for Team Rizzo has garnered attention, taking just four weeks to complete. Native co-founder Dan Ross said, “This is the first time Bittensor has been underwritten. Team Rizzo wanted to buy their own policy to attract people to come and stake to their own validator and make them feel safe. So we’ve been able to create a new product, underwrite a new protocol, get third party smart-contract cover with a $25 million limit in about four weeks. If we did that with traditional insurance, that’s a three to six month thing at minimum — if it could be done at all.”
