Tokenized catastrophe bonds target the disaster-insurance gap

Natural disasters caused $220 billion in economic losses last year. Insurance covered only $107 billion of that bill, according to Swiss Re, leaving households, businesses and governments to absorb the rest. Capital has continued to flow into catastrophe bonds. Catastrophe bonds, or cat bonds, let insurers pass the financial risk of a hurricane, wildfire or earthquake to capital-market investors. The market had $65.6 billion outstanding in June and new issuance reached $11.3 billion in the second quarter, the largest quarterly total on record, according to Artemis’ recent cat bond report .