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Behind the Idea: Wakam UK

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Behind the Idea: Wakam UK

The insurance industry has long been hampered by fragmented legacy systems and slow, complex processes. Seeking to remove these barriers is Wakam UK, a digital insurer purpose-built to provide agile, AI-native capacity for the next generation of MGAs and embedded platforms.

Mark Christer, CEO of Wakam UK

Wakam UK is a fully authorised digital insurer that designs and underwrites tailor-made products for insurtechs and distributors. Part of the broader Wakam Group, the UK entity has achieved £400million in premium volume within its first year, utilizing an API-driven platform and core AI integration to enable partners to move from concept to launch in just weeks.

Mark Christer, CEO of Wakam UK, discusses the company’s mission to make insurance as easy to manage as any other digital service.

Tell us more about Wakam UK and its offering

Wakam UK is a digital insurer purpose-built for MGAs, insurtechs, and embedded insurance platforms. We design and underwrite tailor-made insurance products that partners can embed directly into their customer journeys. Our role is to remove friction using a modern, API-driven platform that avoids the pitfalls of fragmented legacy systems.

Crucially, we are not a fronting insurer; we retain at least 50 per cent of the risk on our balance sheet and are fully authorised by the FCA and PRA. This ensures we are invested in sustainable, profitable growth alongside our partners. Furthermore, we built AI into our operations from day one—designing workflows with AI at the core to price more accurately and move faster.

What problem was Wakam UK set up to solve?

Insurance remains slow and operationally fragmented, particularly for digital-first businesses. Launching products often requires navigating multiple insurers and lengthy approval processes. Wakam UK was built to remove these barriers, making insurance as easy to build and manage as any other digital service. Our framework allows partners to scale confidently and move from concept to launch in weeks—our fastest deployment to date took just 8 weeks.

Since launch, how has Wakam UK evolved?

Officially established in April 2024 following regulatory approval, we have quickly grown to a team of 35 and partnered with 13 distribution platforms. In just over a year, we achieved £400 million in UK premium volume while remaining profitable. As part of the Wakam Group, which has over €1 billion in gross written premium, we offer our partners both cross-border capability and proven operational scale.

What has been the biggest challenge or most ‘tricky moment’?

Building a fully authorised insurer from scratch is a demanding process requiring high standards of governance and capital strength. Our biggest challenge was delivering regulatory readiness while maintaining commercial momentum. We deliberately chose full authorisation over a fronting model because it gives partners confidence in our long-term resilience and allows us to make underwriting decisions quickly right here in the UK.

What are your proudest achievements so far?

Launching as a fully authorised insurer is our defining milestone. Commercially, reaching £400 million in premium volume in our first year reflects a genuine demand for a different kind of capacity partner. We are also incredibly proud of our Net Promoter Score of 60, which places us in the ‘excellent’ category globally and reflects our commitment to speed, transparency, and co-creation.

How would you describe Wakam UK’s culture?

Our culture is entrepreneurial, collaborative, and impact-driven. We operate with a strong sense of ownership and value curiosity, accountability, and clarity. This creates a high-energy environment that combines a start-up mindset with the discipline required of a regulated insurer.

What differentiates Wakam UK in a crowded insurance market?

Five factors set us apart:

  1. Speed: Our structure allows for timelines that legacy insurers cannot match.
  2. Empowered People: Our team has the authority to make decisions without layers of committees.
  3. AI-Native Operations: We built AI into every process—underwriting, claims, and fraud detection—from day one.
  4. Regulatory Strength: Our status as a fully authorised insurer provides security and a discipline we use as a competitive advantage.
  5. Partnership Focus: We co-build products, sharing data and providing real-time portfolio visibility.
What’s next for Wakam UK?

Our focus is on sustainable profitable growth and continued innovation. We are expanding our UK presence and onboarding new MGAs while deepening our investment in AI to deliver even greater accuracy for our partners. We believe the next decade belongs to those who combine customer insight with agile, tech-enabled capacity, and Wakam UK is built to be that partner.

Discord Wants Your Face, Here’s Why You Should Say No

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Discord Wants Your Face, Here’s Why You Should Say No

“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.” – Milton Friedman

Discord’s move to require age verification through facial recognition and ID scans arrives wrapped in the language of protection. But it’s actually a blueprint for something more troubling: normalizing surveillance in the name of safety.

There’s no real way to know how many Bitcoin-focused Discord groups there are, but there’s no doubt that Discord is an often-reached-for tool in our ecosystem’s toolbox. 

The rationales presented by Discord are, by now, familiar. But while KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements, as stated, serve noble purposes, they are little more than ratcheting screws in practice.  Each requirement normalizes the next. Each new baseline becomes tomorrow’s minimum. The Overton window moves.

Our movement is skeptical of concentrated power no matter its source—particularly the power to know, track, and categorize citizens. This is true whether that power comes from governments, corporations and, more narrowly, online community platforms. 

Discord presents its move as inevitable. It’s not. I know that Discord isn’t trying to harm anyone. The company genuinely believes it’s protecting users. But good intentions don’t prevent the drift. They accelerate it. There’s also the risk that the collected data becomes exposed. 

Luckily, there are alternatives. As with Linux and even Bitcoin itself, the open-source approach presents the solution. Alternatives that invert the power dynamic—where users control their keys and platforms can’t—are quietly gaining traction.

Open Source Beats a Tightened Fist

Open-source platforms built on federation models—services like Fedi—don’t require identity verification to participate. They’re privacy-by-design, not privacy-theater. They may be slower to scale and lack Discord’s network effects, but they’re also immune to the pressure that turns “safety features” into surveillance infrastructure.

Additionally, Nostr—a censorship-resistant protocol built on cryptographic keys instead of usernames and passwords—represents another alternative. With Nostr, you don’t create an account with a company but, rather, a keypair. That key is yours. No verification. No ID. No biometrics. No company between you and your data.

The protocol is still young. The user experience needs work. But the architecture is sound: you own your identity, not a platform. 

This matters more than it sounds. On Discord, your account is Discord’s property. On Nostr, your account is mathematically yours. You can move between relay servers—the infrastructure layer—without losing your identity or your social graph. You can’t be deplatformed because there’s no platform to deplatform you from.

And it’s not just Discord. It’s TikTok facing potential regulation. It’s Instagram adding identity verification for creators. It’s the entire social internet moving inch by inch toward a future where participation requires documentation.

The Moves We’re Making

We’re at an inflection point. Over the next few years, communities like Bitcoin Park‘s 1,000+-person Discord will migrate to alternatives. We’re slowly moving ours across multiple platforms—Fedi for federated communication, Nostr for censorship-resistant social layers. 

This is not because our members are doing anything wrong and most certainly not because we have something to hide. We believe people deserve infrastructure that respects privacy and sovereignty as principles.

These tools are unglamorous and slower to adopt, but they’re getting better. And they’re the only infrastructure that genuinely inverts the power dynamic—putting users in control rather than platforms.

So we’re choosing tools that can’t be turned off. Not because we’re paranoid but because, on behalf of the communities we serve, we’re paying attention.

Consider subscribing: bitcoinpark.com/email

This is a guest post by Rod. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

White House Crypto Summit In Focus Friday, Expert Predicts 3 Major Outcomes

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White House Crypto Summit In Focus Friday, Expert Predicts 3 Major Outcomes

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

The White House is expected to host another round of talks this Friday between representatives of the crypto industry and major banking institutions, as both sides race to meet a March 1 deadline aimed at advancing the long-delayed crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act). 

The renewed discussions come after weeks of negotiations in Washington, D.C., where participants have been attempting to bridge a key divide over the treatment of stablecoins.

SEC Safe Harbor And Strategic Crypto Reserve

The dispute has centred on whether stablecoin issuers should be permitted to offer interest on unused token balances. However, as Bitcoinist reported earlier this week, the prospect of paying interest-like returns on dormant stablecoin holdings — a priority for many crypto-native firms — has effectively been ruled out. 

The conversation has instead shifted toward a narrower question: whether companies may provide rewards tied to specific user actions or engagement, rather than simply compensating users for holding balances.

Despite signs that at least one contentious issue may be cooling, expectations for Friday’s meeting remain high. Market expert Paul Barron has suggested the gathering could produce several significant developments. 

In a recent post on X, Barron predicted a potential truce between banks and stablecoin issuers. He also floated the possibility of formal Treasury protocols governing a proposed strategic reserve, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP.

In addition, Barron suggested that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could introduce “safe harbor” guidelines designed to reduce enforcement actions and provide clearer regulatory pathways for crypto projects.

However, reporting from Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America indicates that a breakthrough may not yet be imminent. 

DeFi And Ethics Issues Might Resurface

Citing sources on both sides of the negotiations, Terrett noted that no decisive “eureka” moment has emerged since draft legislative language was circulated following last week’s meeting, which participants described as constructive. 

That session marked the third formal attempt by industry and banking representatives to find common ground. It remains uncertain whether an agreement will be finalized by the White House’s March 1 target date or whether negotiators will settle on a compromise that prompts a public announcement.

Attention is now expected to return to other unresolved matters within the broader market structure framework. Concerns surrounding decentralized finance (DeFi) and ethical considerations are likely to resurface, particularly during a Senate Democratic member meeting on market structure scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. 

With the deadline fast approaching, the upcoming White House session may prove pivotal in determining whether months of negotiations translate into legislative progress or whether further delays await the CLARITY Act.

Crypto
The daily chart shows the total crypto market cap’s recovery toward $2.35 trillion. Source: TOTAL on TradingView.com

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

Jane Street Speculation Renews Scrutiny of Bitcoin ETF Market Mechanics

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Jane Street Speculation Renews Scrutiny of Bitcoin ETF Market Mechanics

In brief

  • Bitcoin ETF shares can be created or redeemed by authorized participants without requiring instant purchases or sales of Bitcoin on public exchanges.
  • Analysts say derivatives hedging and settlement timing can weaken the short-term link between ETF inflows and spot price movements.
  • The mechanics are legal and widespread across ETF market makers, but may shift price discovery toward futures markets during periods of heavy institutional flow.

Bitcoin’s Wednesday rally has reignited debate over the role of Wall Street market makers in spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, after online speculation linked the price move to a lawsuit involving quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider Jane Street.

Posts circulating on X claimed that Bitcoin’s roughly 10% climb over two days coincided with the disappearance of a purported intraday selling pattern, suggesting that legal action against Jane Street had altered market behaviour.

Analysts and ETF specialists, however, said the focus on a single firm obscures a more complex set of market mechanics underlying how spot Bitcoin ETFs operate.

Bitcoin ETFs track the asset’s spot price, but the creation and redemption process allows institutional middlemen to meet demand without having to buy or sell Bitcoin on public exchanges.

Jeff Park, chief investment officer at ProCap and an adviser to ETF issuer Bitwise, said Wednesday the debate reflects a misunderstanding of ETF market structure rather than evidence of manipulation. 

In a screenshot post on X, Park outlined how large trading firms responsible for creating and redeeming ETF shares, known as authorized participants, operate under regulatory exemptions that allow them to meet ETF demand without mechanically forcing immediate spot Bitcoin purchases.

Park said those exemptions, which apply to all authorized participants, are designed to support orderly ETF market-making, but can create a “grey window” in which ETF share creation, hedging activity, and spot market transactions are not tightly linked in time.

As a result, ETF inflows do not always translate into immediate buying pressure in the spot Bitcoin market, weakening the assumption that ETF demand directly maps to spot price movements.

Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at crypto fund manager Merkle Tree Capital, told Decrypt the structure also creates incentives that favour derivatives over spot markets. 

Because Bitcoin futures frequently trade at a premium to spot prices in a condition known as contango, authorized participants may hedge exposure using futures while earning carry from the basis, he said.

“ETF assets under management balloons without forcing exchange buys, muting rallies below key levels where hype would otherwise push prices higher in a flywheel,” McMillin said. 

McMillin added that when futures positions are reduced, either due to macro shifts or narrowing spreads, the adjustment can amplify price swings, contributing to sharp pullbacks that appear sudden to retail investors.

Both analysts stressed that the behaviour is legal and consistent with how ETFs are designed to operate, and does not imply wrongdoing by any individual firm. 

Instead, they said it highlights how Bitcoin’s price discovery is increasingly shaped by institutional trading venues such as futures markets, rather than spot exchanges alone.

“APs wield hedge-fund-like incentives and tools with less accountability in a volatile, adoption-stage asset,” McMillin said. “The ETF ‘innovation’ risks becoming a yield-skimming machine for Wall St. that prioritizes institutional arbitrage over genuine spot support.”

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AI Accounting Startup now Valued at $1.15 Billion

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AI Accounting Startup now Valued at $1.15 Billion

A vendor that provides AI for accountants has achieved unicorn status following its latest funding round.

New York City-based Basis confirmed a $100 million Series B round that now sees it valued at $1.15 billion.

The round was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel, with further backing from GV (formerly Google Ventures), ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.

Basis was founded in 2023, when it completed a $3.6 million seed round, followed by a $34 million Series A round in December 2024.

The vendor’s product offering is centered on agentic AI systems that can introduce end-to-end automation to a number of key areas for accounting businesses, including client account services, taxation and auditing. These can assist with tasks such as tracking expenses, completing tax returns, and preparing financial statements.

Basis likens its approach to that of common agentic coding platforms. It builds “long-horizon” agents that operate autonomously on complex tasks over many hours, using models from labs such as OpenAI to deliver accurate results. 

Related:Google Labs adds Agentic AI Capabilities to Opal

Prashant Mital, applied AI lead at OpenAI, said in a release that Basis has “pushed the limits of what we thought our models could do on real-world, economically valuable, complex accounting tasks.”

Among Basis’ recent developments was a successful automated completion of a 1065 tax return, which requires an accountant to produce individual tax documents for all partners in a business.

Increased use of AI in accounting is becoming a necessity, with the industry suffering from what Basis describes as a “decades-long” talent shortage. Fewer students than ever are training to become accountants, forcing many companies to turn away work, increasing the pressure on existing staff and squeezing margins.

According to Basis CEO Matt Harpe, the company is focused on addressing these shortages to ensure its human staff can focus on the most important work, such as providing strategic advice to clients.

“Our sole focus is to equip accountants with the highest performing, most accurate AI for accounting and to empower firms to drive new growth, provide higher-value service, and improve accountant quality of life across every one of their practices.”

Basis says it is already working with about 30% of the top 25 accounting companies and will use the latest injection of capital to accelerate development of its platform and bolster its engineering and machine learning teams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bitcoin holds range as leverage builds in ether and cardano: Crypto Markets Today

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Bitcoin holds range as leverage builds in ether and cardano: Crypto Markets Today

Bitcoin BTC$68,155.47 cooled off in Asia hours on Thursday, trading at $68,600 after testing $70,000 during a ferocious U.S. session on Wednesday.

As February draws toward a close, the largest cryptocurrency remains in a trading range that has persisted since early in the month, having tested $62,500 on Tuesday and $71,100 to the upside on Feb. 15.

It’s worth noting that bitcoin broke a similar trading range to the upside in January, trapping breakout traders before the price tumbled from $98,000 to $60,000 over the subsequent three weeks, forming a lower high in this recent bearish cycle.

A few tokens outshone the broader altcoin market. HYPE is up 4.3% since midnight UTC as it moves back toward $30, while privacy token decred (DCR) rose to its highest since November after adding 4%.

U.S. stock index futures are little changed, with NVIDIA’s earnings report failing to generate sustained upside amid lingering concerns that AI valuation is overdone.

Derivatives positioning

  • Total crypto futures market open interest (OI) has increased by over 6.6% to nearly $100 billion. This is bigger than the increase in the total crypto market cap, indicating there’s been an influx of fresh capital into the market.
  • ADA and ETH futures stand out with OI increases of 21% and 15%, respectively. Several other altcoins have seen increases of 9%.
  • Bitcoin’s OI growth of over 3% appears largely due to the spot price gain.
  • BTC and ETH’s 30-day implied volatility indices, BVIV and EVIV, remain near weekly lows, indicating market calm and supporting continued price gains.
  • Annualized perpetual funding rates for most tokens, including bitcoin and ether, have stabilized to slightly above zero, indicating a renewed bias for bullish, long bets.
  • On Deribit, bitcoin’s price bounce triggered demand for call options at strikes ranging from $85,000 to $90,000. However, the overall options market continues to show a bias for puts, a sign that downside reservations still linger.
  • The $60,000 put option remains the most popular bet, with a notional open interest of over $1.4 billion.

Token talk

  • Layer-1 token DOT$1.5889 posted a 21% gain over the past 24 hours. While the move petered out in European hours, investors are showing appetite ahead of the network’s reward halving coming in March.
  • Uniswap’s governance token (UNI) also jumped, adding 15%. The move can be attributed to a new governance vote that proposes increasing the protocol’s revenue capture across several layer-2 networks.
  • One token that particularly underperformed was ATOM$1.9182, which lost more than 6%, with the selloff continuing into European hours. There is no clear bearish catalyst for the move, which reflects persistent altcoin vulnerability due to a lack of liquidity.
  • Crypto majors ADA$0.2945 and ether (ETH) rose by around 8.5% since Wednesday morning. The moves were intriguing because open interest for both assets increased, suggesting they was backed by leverage as opposed to spot buying, according to Coinalyze.

Bitcoin Price Eyes $80,000 Liquidity Grab as ETFs Resume Buying BTC

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Bitcoin Price Eyes $80,000 Liquidity Grab as ETFs Resume Buying BTC

Bitcoin (BTC) tapped $70,000 during Wednesday’s New York session as bulls targeted sell liquidity.

Key takeaways:

  • BTC price support must hold above a key trendline at $68,000 for the rebound to continue.

  • $80,000 is a key level to watch as the next big liquidation cluster above.

  • Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows attracted half a billion dollars in inflows on Wednesday.

BTC/USD hourly chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin must close week above $68,000

Data from TradingView showed the BTC/USD pair at $68,480 on Bitstamp. This is just above the 200-week exponential moving average (EMA), which is currently at $68,338.

Related: Bitcoin tops $69.5K after stocks rebound, strong earnings data boost risk appetite

Analyst Rekt Capital spotted Bitcoin facing resistance from this trendline, saying that the latest recovery could turn into a “post-breakdown retest of the EMA into new resistance” based on historical price action.

“The moment of truth is coming for Bitcoin,” Rekt Capital said, adding:

“Bitcoin will need a Weekly Close back above the EMA and flip it into new support to go against the grain of history.”

BTC/USD weekly chart. Source: Rekt Capital

Zooming in, fellow analyst Jelle said that the price needs to turn the 50 EMA (at $68,000) on the four-hour chart into support to confirm the recovery.

BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: Jelle

As Cointelegraph reported, the BTC/USD pair may rally to $74,508, where sellers are likely to step in, if the 20-day EMA, currently at $69,220, is broken by the bulls.

Will liquidations drive BTC price to $80,000?

Several traders are anticipating a possible liquidity grab where a cluster of ask-orders are placed above $72,000.

The latest data from monitoring resource CoinGlass showed BTC price tapping the liquidity around $70,000, with the bulk of interest still clustered above the spot price.

About $2 billion in ask orders are sitting between $72,450 and $75,000.

Bitcoin liquidation heatmap (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

If the $75,000 level is broken, it could spark a liquidation squeeze, forcing short sellers to close positions and driving prices toward $80,000, the next major liquidity cluster.

“Bitcoin’s liquidity hunt has only just started,” analyst AlphaBTC said in his latest post on X, adding:

“Unless there is a catalyst to drop, I am expecting these higher levels to get run in the next few weeks.”

Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows support BTC’s upside

Institutional demand is showing signs of a comeback, with US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs recording inflows for two consecutive days, according to data from Farside Investors.

Investors poured a total of $765 million into these investment products on Tuesday and Wednesday, with $507 million flowing into the funds Wednesday, the largest since Feb. 2.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs flows table. Source: Farside Investors

“ETF inflows and short liquidations doing the heavy lifting,” X user Raster said in a recent post, adding:

 “This isn’t retail FOMO, it’s institutional accumulation with a technical breakout.”

This growing demand-side pressure could push BTC prices higher, particularly if combined with growing adoption and whale accumulation.

Bitcoin Price, Markets, Price Analysis, Market Analysis, Bitcoin ETF, ETF
Source: Shah