On April 10, Fortune reported that crypto insurance firm Meanwhile completed a $40 million Series A round, led by Framework Ventures and Fulgur Ventures, with participation from Xapo Bank founder Wences Casares. The company is now valued at $190 million, aiming to hedge against inflation and boost long-term returns. The new capital will be used for global expansion and compliance development. Back in 2022, Meanwhile raised $20.5 million from investors including Sam Altman.

So what makes Meanwhile special enough to attract such high-profile backers? At this stage, investors are increasingly focused on product-market fit (PMF)—whether real users are actually paying. While its valuation isn’t cheap, Meanwhile’s product structure and narrative directly address the pain points of long-term BTC holders, making its design logic worth examining.

Life Insurance × BTC: Meanwhile’s Track and Innovation

Meanwhile is a crypto insurance company focused on “Bitcoin life insurance.” Simply put, you pay your premiums in BTC—not through a traditional bank account or check—and if one day you suddenly disappear from this world, Meanwhile will directly send a BTC payout to the wallet address you’ve pre-designated, giving your family a proper closure.

There aren’t many companies in this track, but the potential is huge. As Bitcoin increasingly becomes a form of “digital gold,” more people adopt the HODL mindset, holding positions for years or even planning to pass them on to their grandchildren. Meanwhile aims to be an on-chain life insurance solution, helping people organize their BTC assets with clarity.

Compared to other DeFi risk protection protocols—like Nexus Mutual covering smart contract vulnerabilities or Etherisc covering flight delays—Meanwhile has carved out a highly specific niche between “traditional life insurance” and “crypto-native.”

Who’s Building Meanwhile?

Meanwhile’s CEO, Zac Townsend, previously co-founded the banking API infrastructure company Standard Treasury, which was eventually acquired by Silicon Valley Bank. He once received a buyout offer from Coinbase, and his very first Bitcoin came directly from Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong.

Zac isn’t going solo—he’s joined by technical co-founder Max Gasner, Meanwhile’s CTO, who leads the end-to-end insurance process. He leverages AI to optimize claims and actuarial tasks, the most headache-inducing parts of traditional insurance. They’re also backed by Danny Baer, a former wealth management expert at HQ Digital, who once managed a portfolio worth $4 billion.

Meanwhile’s board is also no small deal—backed by traditional finance giants like Santander Bank and MS&AD Insurance Group. The company is based in Bermuda, known as the “insurance capital of the world,” with 70% of its GDP coming from the insurance and reinsurance industry. Meanwhile’s story began brewing in 2022, when it established its product direction and business model. Throughout 2023, the team focused on refining the product and resolving key issues around compliance, risk control, and regulation. By early 2024, they secured a license for commercial operations and officially launched their insurance policies.

Meanwhile has completed its seed funding round, led by Sam Altman and former Stripe Issuing head Lachy Groom. The second round was led by Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund, which has invested in major U.S. life insurer Northwestern Mutual). In April 2025, Meanwhile raised $40 million in its Series A round, led by Framework Ventures and Fulgur Ventures, with individual investors like Wences Casares also participating. The company is now valued at $190 million. Framework Ventures is known for its deep involvement in DeFi and Web3 infrastructure, having backed projects like Chainlink and Aave, while Fulgur Ventures focuses more on the Bitcoin ecosystem, with investments in Lightning Network-related technologies.

The “Ultimate Conviction Card” for Bitcoin Holders

This life insurance policy is denominated in BTC and provides lifetime coverage. You can pay in full or in installments. Even if you’ve only made one payment, the policy still takes effect—future premiums are directly deducted from the claim payout, making it more user-friendly than traditional credit products. The entire process is completed within the BTC ecosystem. All you need is a Bitcoin wallet, such as Ledger or Trezor, and you can manage everything through the Meanwhile website or app.

No bank account is needed, and there’s no complicated credit card process. Payments are made via Lightning Network or Taproot—fast, cheap, and gas-free, unlike typical on-chain transactions that can be slow and costly.

The most attractive feature is that you can access liquidity without selling your BTC. As long as you live long enough, you can borrow BTC against your policy after 2 years—up to 90% LTV, with an annual interest rate of just 3%. There’s no need to repay—it’s automatically deducted during the payout, so you don’t even need to worry about a due date. Compared to typical BTC loans that charge around 14%, this is a real benefit.

This method doesn’t trigger capital gains tax, as it’s not considered a sale, and you can still benefit from Bitcoin’s price appreciation. The payout is also in BTC, so you don’t have to worry about USD inflation eroding your claim payout into something barely worth a few instant noodle cups decades later.

Meanwhile also has a trust-building mechanism. If the returns don’t meet expectations, users can redeem their policy. The platform offers one-on-one communication services to provide a personal touch, and the entire system is transparent and verifiable on the blockchain.

The product is already live, and users can directly register on the Meanwhile platform, submit health data, and after an actuary evaluates, the premium amount is determined. All you need is a Bitcoin wallet to make the payment. After the insured person passes away, the beneficiary provides identity information and directly receives the BTC payout, which is transferred to the preset wallet.

Is It a True Benefit or a False Proposition?

Meanwhile’s Bitcoin life insurance product fills a gap in the crypto market, especially in wealth transfer and tax optimization. As institutional adoption of Bitcoin continues (such as ETFs and pension fund allocations), the financial service demands of high-net-worth crypto holders will grow rapidly. If Meanwhile can continue to break through in user experience, compliance, and market promotion, it is likely to become a leader in the crypto insurance sector.

Although Meanwhile currently has strong backers, with changes in tariff policies after the Trump administration, the project needs to monitor potential risks. For example, the current customer structure is unclear—whether it mainly targets institutions or has a larger share of retail customers. If Bitcoin experiences a significant drop and returns are lower than expected, how will they handle large-scale redemptions? In the face of these challenges, Meanwhile needs to formulate flexible response strategies and closely monitor market dynamics and policy changes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the project.

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