After a protocol upgrade, if the contract address changes, insurance coverage does not automatically continue. Based on the mechanism during the Nexus Mutual V2 upgrade, there is no automatic migration path between old and new contract versions. Old policies only cover risks on the old contract address.
The Reason Lies in the Architecture of Nexus Mutual V2
When Nexus Mutual upgraded from V1 to V2 in March 2023, the protocol underwent a major reconstruction: V2 was redesigned as a "risk management infrastructure layer". The staking pools, coverage products, and claims processes were all completely different from V1. The V1 contracts are no longer supported, and the Nexus Mutual team even paid gas fees to help users migrate NXM tokens from the V1 era. If old policies could automatically cover new addresses, such migration operations would not have been necessary.
From a contract perspective, Nexus Mutual V2 uses a completely different contract architecture: core contracts such as Cover.sol, CoverProducts.sol, and LimitOrders.sol were all newly deployed. The MasterAware version used in the old contracts was gradually replaced in V2, and several old contracts (like Gateway) have been "soft deprecated". They will only be completely shut down after all old policies expire. This design of "old and new running in parallel but independently" shows that coverage is tied to a specific contract address.
V2 Policies Support More Flexibility, but Not Automatic Migration
Nexus Mutual V2 did introduce an "editable policy" feature — users can extend the policy duration or adjust coverage amount without purchasing a new one. However, this is limited to modifications within the same contract address and does not apply when the protocol migrates to a new address. If your assets are transferred from the old protocol address to a new one, the old policy cannot cover the new address through the editing function.
Risk Warning: When a protocol is upgraded, if the old contract is deprecated (like the V1 contracts being discontinued), the validity of old policies may only cover up to the day the old contract stops operating. Risks at the new address are not covered.
Common Reasons for Failure
Many people see a protocol page saying "upgraded to V2" and assume the old policy "should" cover the new version. However, upgrades usually involve new contract deployments. The contract address tied to the policy hasn't migrated, so coverage actually breaks.
Next Steps
When a protocol upgrade announcement is made, immediately check in the insurance protocol app (such as Nexus Mutual's "Your Covers" page) whether the protocol address bound to your policy is still the new address you are using. If the address has changed, you need to purchase a new policy on the new protocol address. Nexus Mutual policies have been tokenized as NFTs and can be transferred and held, but this is a transfer of "policy ownership", not an automatic extension of "coverage" to the new protocol.
