The Insurance Broker in question is IMA Financial Group, a wealth management firm. They have implemented blockchain technology into their operations by investing in a Research and Development project in Decentraland.
Decentraland is a 3D virtual world where users can craft unique avatars to explore the world with and purchase land. Purchasing land involves using the MANA currency. The purchase serves as an NFT that proves the exclusive ownership of the person over the piece of land by writing down the transaction in the blockchain.
IMA Financial Group is not the first finance giant interested in the metaverse, and JPMorgan has already announced plans to set up a shop in Decentraland.
The senior vice president of marketing, Justin Jacobs, who is in charge of leading the “Web3Labs” project, claims, “We have this huge asset class worth over $40 billion, for which there are no traditional insurance products.”
According to Jacob, “Many NFTs I think would be considered some form of art, and today we transact a ton of business in the realm of specie insurance; fine art, collectibles, things of that nature.”
Keeping in mind Jacob’s words, it makes sense why the company would consider plunging into the metaverse. NFTs are a lucrative opportunity, the result of a trend that has seen a massive rise in popularity, and they don’t seem to be going anywhere even if there may be some short-term dips in revenue.
Web3Lab’s Plans For The Metaverse
IMA Financial Group has ambitious plans for the metaverse that end with small-scale research and development projects.
According to Jacobs, NFTs are a new market in the same way as the “burgeoning cannabis industry,” which means there is a lot of untapped potential in getting new clients who may be convinced that DeFi services are trustworthy.
Web3Labs is considering minting their unique non-fungible tokens to increase their presence in the NFT community and as a way to promote their other transactions.
Paul Washington, IMA executive, said in an interview that “I absolutely believe we are quickly approaching an inflection point,” and “There’s, of course, a big focus on asset building in the metaverse, which needs to be considered from a risk mitigation standpoint, no question.”
The end goal of Web3Labs seems to be the opening of a location where insurance negotiations that cover NFTs that people consider purchasing can happen.
