How Re is Rebuilding the $1T Reinsurance Market with Stablecoins | Karn Saroya & Avichal Garg

June 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Karn Saroya, founder and CEO of Re, describes his company as "on-chain reinsurance." Re takes in stablecoins, deploys that capital to U.S. insurance companies to back their policies, collects premiums, and returns the proceeds to on-chain capital providers. The business already backs 35 insurance carriers with half a billion dollars in business and expects to reach a billion within about seven months. Reinsurance is a trillion-dollar global market, dominated by players like Munich Re and Swiss Re, but it is opaque and slow. Re’s thesis is that on-chain capital is the most elegant way to prove solvency and fulfill the promise to pay — anyone with a computer can verify the capital is there.

The Two-Sided Efficiency Advantage

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of Bankless

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (00:23) **What is Re** - Karn introduces Re as an on-chain reinsurer that routes stablecoin capital to insurance carriers
2 (00:52) **Reinsurance basics and blockchain fit** - Explains the $1T opaque reinsurance market and why on-chain capital provides transparent solvency proof
3 (02:21) **Blockchain improvements to the capital stack** - Lower expense ratios via high operating leverage and composability with DeFi protocols for superior cost of capital
4 (04:05) **Regulated FinTech + on-chain architecture** - Two-layer model: regulated front-end reinsurance business plus smart-contract backend for compliance and capital markets
5 (06:55) **Democratization of reinsurance yields** - Stablecoin holders gain access to previously gatekept uncorrelated returns historically limited to pension funds and sovereigns
6 (09:50) **Operational efficiency as competitive edge** - Smart contracts collapse capital-raising and compliance costs, enabling lower rates and market-share gains versus legacy players
7 (12:49) **Scale of disruption vs marginal gains** - Discussion of whether this is 30% efficiency or full industry rewiring via AI workflows and on-chain capital

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Re is bringing the $1T reinsurance market onchain. Founder Karn Saroya and Electric Capital’s Avichal Garg join David to unpack how stablecoins can become a new capital source for insurance, why real-world reinsurance may offer crypto’s missing “real yield,” and how Re is using Ethereum, smart contracts, and AI to compete with legacy giants like Lloyd’s of London, Munich Re, and Swiss Re. They also discuss the RE token, the future of onchain capital markets, and why stablecoins could become the backbone of a new financial system.

---

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS

🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

---

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

2:13 Blockchain Reinsurance Edge

4:12 Stablecoin Capital Markets

9:17 Efficiency Beats Incumbents

13:02 Rewiring Insurance Plumbing

16:24 Durable Startup Advantage

23:26 Reinsurance Market Size

30:09 How Reinsurance Pays

32:42 Capital Stack Mechanics

35:52 Leverage and Yield

40:02 What $RE Tracks

41:34 Tranche Yields

42:36 Productive Capital Returns

44:47 Looping the Receipts

48:01 $RE Token Governance

51:26 Roadmap to a Billion

52:13 Onchain Adoption Ahead

56:02 The DeFi Mullet Future

---

RESOURCES

https://re.xyz/home

Karn Saroya