Meanwhile, a Bermuda-based life insurance firm that operates entirely in bitcoin, released on Thursday its 2024 audited financial statements — making it one of the first companies fully operating in bitcoin to ever release a financial audit.
“We follow a tried-and-trusted business model, but we denominate everything in bitcoin,” Zac Townsend, CEO of Meanwhile, told CoinDesk in an interview. The very first life insurance company, The Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office, was founded in London in 1706, he noted, and Meanwhile essentially follows the same blueprint today.
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Clients pay for their life insurance in bitcoin and receive a bitcoin payment once the insurance kicks in. Payouts aren’t impacted by any shifts in the dollar value of a bitcoin.
The audit, performed by Harris & Trotter, shows that Meanwhile had 220.4 BTC in total assets and had net income of 25.29 BTC for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Meanwhile is a Bitcoin Treasury company, Townsend said, but it’s of a different breed from firms such as Strategy or Metaplanet, which use elaborate financial products to grow their bitcoin stash. Meanwhile accumulates bitcoin by operating a bitcoin business and generating bitcoin revenue. Besides, Bermuda regulation prohibits Meanwhile from selling its assets, since most of the firm’s bitcoin is held on behalf of its clients.
“Owning life insurance is a bit like having savings,” Townsend said, adding that it matters to pick a currency that won’t suffer from strong inflation, as happened to — for instance — the Argentinian peso. A bitcoin-denominated life insurance eliminates that risk, although policyholders may suffer losses if, say, bitcoin’s value crashes and fails to recover.
“This [audit] is an important, foundational step in reimagining the financial system based on a single, global, decentralized standard outside the control of any one government,” Townsend added.