As interest in cryptocurrency has grown over the years, so too have the myriad applications for its use. The OG cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is no exception, as evidenced by 2024\u2019s explosion of interest in exchange-traded funds<\/a>, Bitcoin decentralized finance<\/a> and ordinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n One such new use case for Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) is its role in the life insurance industry, pioneered by Meanwhile, which describes itself as the \u201cfirst and only life insurance company denominated in Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n On Episode 48 of The Agenda <\/em>podcast, hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond spoke with Danny Baer, Meanwhile\u2019s director of wealth and asset management, to discover how Bitcoin-denominated life insurance works and learn about the tax benefits it offers BTC hodlers.<\/p>\n Baer said that Meanwhile offers a whole life insurance policy<\/a>, meaning customers are covered for their entire lives rather than a limited term. The difference between Meanwhile and its mainstream competitors is that the company denominates its policies in Bitcoin \u2014 in fact, its entire operations are denominated in the asset.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than paying your premiums in dollars or having your life insurance policy grow in terms of dollars, or borrowing against your life insurance policy in dollars, or when you die, your life insurance policy paying out to your beneficiaries in dollars, all of that happens in Bitcoin,\u201d Baer said.<\/p>\n <\/template><\/p>\n This means that if a customer has a 10 BTC policy, its total value would be around $720,000 at today\u2019s prices \u2014 but its future value in US dollar terms could be astronomical<\/a> if Bitcoin continues its upward climb.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve tried to do is take an asset that we view as a very low time preference asset in Bitcoin, meaning that people should own it for a long time, and marry that with one of the lowest time preference savings or investment or planning vehicles, which is whole life insurance.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Sam Altman-linked Meanwhile Advisors creates BTC private credit fund<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Baer explained that a Bitcoin-denominated life insurance policy has several tax advantages<\/a> for long-term hodlers. \u201cA primary driver of why people are buying our Bitcoin-denominated whole life insurance policy is not even the insurance piece of passing on Bitcoin when you die \u2014 it\u2019s the key living benefit, which is the tax-free policy loan,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can borrow against the value of your policy tax-free.\u201d<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Meanwhile<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n As Bitcoin continues to increase in value alongside a policy, customers have an increasingly larger pool of funds to borrow against. And because everything is denominated in Bitcoin, \u201cyou borrow Bitcoin against it, and when you do that, it\u2019s like you get a new Bitcoin with a new cost basis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s just say you paid your premiums in at $63,000 today, and it\u2019s 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, and Bitcoin has gone to $1 million a coin. You could borrow against the value of your policy, Bitcoin out, [and] its cost basis would be $1 million. So, you could sell it immediately and have no capital gains on that transaction because you\u2019re selling it at cost.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To hear more from Baer\u2019s conversation with The Agenda <\/em>\u2014 including how Meanwhile manages customers\u2019 BTC, how payouts work and how the company is regulated \u2014 listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph\u2019s Podcasts page<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a> or Spotify<\/a>. And don\u2019t forget to check out Cointelegraph\u2019s full lineup<\/a> of other shows!\u00a0<\/p>\nBitcoins What is Bitcoin life insurance?<\/h2>\n
Bitcoins Tax benefits of Bitcoin life insurance<\/h2>\n