Insurance companies in Wyoming can soon invest in cryptocurrencies

• A new law passed in Wyoming allows insurance companies to invest in cryptocurrencies. 
• It is the first state in the US to allow companies to do so and the law will be effective from July 1, 2020.

Wyoming Governor, Mark Gordon, has recently signed a law that will allow insurance firms to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The state authorities have amended the state’s insurance code to make it possible for domestic insurance firms to invest in digital assets.

Caitlin Long, the co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition and a long-time Wall Street veteran, recently tweeted: 

YES! Insurance cos in #Wyoming will be able to invest in #bitcoin & #crypto as of 7/1/2020 (this was recently signed into law by @GovernorGordon). Most likely, insurers will offer this as part of variable life policies rather than whole life since NAIC capital charge will be high. -@CaitlinLong_

According to an earlier BTCManager report, Wyoming authorities first defined crypto as a new asset class in March 2018. At the time, Long said:

The state of Wyoming is the first elected body in the world to define a utility token as a new type of asset class different from a security or commodity. This has been a hot topic in Washington D.C. recently, as the SEC considers cryptos to be securities, FinCEN says they’re generally money, and the CFTC views them as commodities. Now, however, you have a state coming out and defining utility tokens as a new form of property, and the property is generally the purview of state law.

The new law defines digital assets as “a representation of economic, proprietary or access rights that are stored in a computer-readable format, and includes digital consumer assets, digital securities and virtual currency.” The law will be valid from July 1, 2020.