Digital insurer Metromile follows through with $1M Bitcoin purchase

Published at: Aug. 11, 2021

San Francisco-based technology firm Metromile has used 10% of the funds it previously said would be allocated towards crypto to buy Bitcoin (BTC).

According to Tuesday's filing from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Metromile reported that it had purchased $1 million in Bitcoin in June. However, the firm recorded a loss of $100,000 in the original crypto buy, holding roughly $900,000 in Bitcoin as of June 30, or 25.6 BTC at the time.

Metromile’s financial report for the second quarter of 2021 says the company held $202.6 million in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, meaning its Bitcoin investment was roughly 0.5% of funds available. Some experts advocate allocating from 1% to 3% of one’s net worth into crypto.

The SEC filing follows the company saying in May it intended to allocate $10 million towards Bitcoin in the second quarter of 2021. At the time, Metromile said it would allow its policyholders — Metromile offers pay-per-mile car insurance — to pay for its services and receive compensation from claims in Bitcoin.

Related: MassMutual Bitcoin purchase proves crypto demand is rising, JPMorgan says

In the second quarter of 2021, Metromile announced the number of its policies in force had been “roughly flat” compared to that of Q1 due to “industry-wide unexpected regulatory delays.” However, the firm’s insurance revenue increased more than 22% over that of the same period last year.

Shares of Metromile stock trading under the Nasdaq ticker MILE dropped sharply on Monday, having stayed above $7.00 since May. The price fell roughly 25% in the last two days from $6.97 to reach $5.24 at the time of publication, making its market capitalization now $660 million. 

Tags
Adoption
Bitcoin
Business
Payments
Insurance
Related Posts
Major Asian Ticketing Agency Accepts Bitcoin on Lightning Network
Vietnamese online ticketing agency Future.Travel now accepts Bitcoin (BTC) payments via the Lightning Network (LN), with funds being converted into local currency at the time of sale. To enable LN-based Bitcoin payments, Future.Travel collaborated with Canada-based tech firm Neutronpay, which will provide Future.Travel its multi-currency merchant platform, according to an April 20 announcement. With the newly integrated option, the BTC transaction processing time will ostensibly be cut down to three to four seconds in most cases. Eliminating fraud, reducing transaction processing time Overall, Future.Travel has been supporting BTC payments for over six years and recently added other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin …
Adoption / April 20, 2020
Question of centralization faces growing crypto insurance industry
Cryptocurrency markets have been maturing over the last few years, making demand for crypto insurance solutions larger as more advanced players dip their toes into the nascent ecosystem. Investopedia reports that cryptocurrency insurance is seen as a “big opportunity,” with a spokesman from one of the world’s largest insurers, Allianz, saying that the company has explored product and coverage options in the cryptocurrency space as it becomes “more relevant, important and prevalent on the real economy.” The cryptocurrency ecosystem is still seen as dangerous and volatile, where funds aren’t completely secure even on leading cryptocurrency exchanges. While some platforms, including …
Adoption / May 9, 2022
The increasingly acute need for crypto-native insurance
The insurance industry has a long history of providing vital support for major leaps in innovation. It’s no coincidence that the modern insurance industry and the industrial revolution arose in parallel. Indeed, it has been convincingly argued that the invention of fire and property insurance — in response to the Great Fire of London — lubricated the gears of capital investment that powered the industrial revolution and is likely the reason why it started in London. Through that first and each subsequent technological revolution, insurance has offered innovators and investors a safety net and served as an outside, objective validator …
Adoption / May 28, 2022
How can UK-based businesses accept Bitcoin?
What are the pros and cons of accepting Bitcoin payments? Accepting Bitcoin payments is advantageous due to lower fees than credit and debit cards, expansion of customer base and real-time bank balances. However, risks like volatility and cybercrime may undermine these benefits. Cryptocurrency payments help save excessive credit and debit card processing fees as they are decentralized and do not need intermediaries to verify the transaction. Moreover, merchants do not incur overseas currency exchange changes if payments are made in BTC or other cryptocurrencies. High transaction speed is another benefit of accepting Bitcoin payments, allowing businesses to receive payments in …
Adoption / Dec. 5, 2022
Bitcoin market cap 'flips' payments giant Visa for the 3rd time
A 48% Bitcoin (BTC) price surge since the start of the year has pushed BTC's market cap past that of payment processing giant Visa once again. With the BTC price currently at $24,365, its market cap of $470.16 billion is now marginally above that of Visa with a market cap of $469.87 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. This is the third time that BTC has "flippened" the market cap of Visa, according to Companies Market Cap. The first time came in late December 2020 when BTC also happened to hit $25,000 for the first time. This was achieved during a price …
Decentralization / Feb. 20, 2023