Insuring the Uninsurable: How Relm Is Building Risk Infrastructure For Crypto | Partner Content

Summary

Joseph Ziolkowski, CEO of Relm Insurance, discusses how the company underwrites emerging risks in crypto, AI, and blockchain without historical data. He explains Relm's approach of understanding each account's facts and circumstances, the importance of collaboration with clients, and how the 2022 market collapse drove risk awareness. Relm initially carried net risk on its balance sheet to build a profitable book that eventually attracted global reinsurers.

• Relm Insurance is a global specialty insurer focused on crypto, AI, and other emerging tech sectors.
• The company avoids traditional backward-looking actuarial models and instead evaluates each account individually.
• Relm has created bespoke products for risks like stablecoin de-pegging, slashing events, and Bitcoin mining interruptions.
• 2022's market turmoil (FTX, Celsius, Voyager) accelerated counterparty risk awareness in the digital asset industry.
• In its early years, Relm kept risk on its own balance sheet because reinsurers had no appetite for new exposures.
• After building a profitable and diversified book, Relm now has a global reinsurance panel.
• Risk management in emerging industries is often reactive, triggered by major loss events.
• Relm helps clients decide whether to mitigate or transfer risk through fact-based analysis.