Danny Brewster, founder of FastBitcoins, joins host Sunny Ray to share his journey from banking to Bitcoin, and the turbulent story behind his earlier venture, NEO&BEE, in Cyprus. Danny recounts how he entered banking as a teenager, later discovered Bitcoin in 2012, and moved to Cyprus, where he began trading Bitcoin peer to peer. There he witnessed the 2013 banking crisis firsthand, when Cypriot banks imposed a bail in on depositors to recapitalize themselves. Danny explains how this event shaped his belief in Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional banking. He details the rise and fall of NEO&BEE, a crowdfunded Bitcoin startup that built a lavish physical branch in Cyprus but collapsed amid legal accusations he says were false. After years of legal battles and public scrutiny, Danny rebuilt from scratch, teaching himself to code and launching FastBitcoins, a leaner, bootstrapped platform offering cash to Bitcoin and lightning network services across multiple countries. The conversation offers a candid look at entrepreneurship, resilience, and lessons learned in the volatile early days of Bitcoin.
Danny Brewster relives Cyprus's bank bail in, NEO&BEE's collapse, and his bootstrapped comeback with FastBitcoins.
Where does your Bitcoin story begin?
I was disruptive in school, got into banking as a teenager, qualified as a financial consultant before 18, and later ran family businesses. I discovered Bitcoin around 2012 and went full time into it. When my daughter's mother moved to Cyprus, I followed to stay close to her and started trading Bitcoin locally through OTC deals and gift cards.
What happened with the Cyprus bank crisis and how did NEO&BEE come about?
Cypriot banks had over lent and started defaulting, so as part of a bailout deal they recapitalized using depositors' funds, which is called a bail in. Initially they planned to take 8 percent of everything over 1,000 euros, but that got rejected. Instead they took 50 percent of everything over 100,000 euros. That event inspired the idea behind NEO&BEE, originally called Bit Bank.
Can you explain what a bail in actually means for regular people?
A bail in means the bank uses depositors' own money to recapitalize itself instead of getting funds from outside. So if you had 200,000 euros in the bank, you could be left with only 100,000, even though deposit insurance was supposed to protect you. It showed people that money in a bank isn't really theirs, they're just unsecured creditors.
What happened with NEO&BEE's physical location and business model?
We built a beautiful physical store in Cyprus, similar to an Apple Store, that cost around 450,000 euros. We were marketed as being 'big to be trusted,' so we had a large team and big expenses. But the software wasn't ready, so we never actually had customers before everything collapsed under legal accusations, none of which involved real customer losses.
How did the legal situation with NEO&BEE unfold for you personally?
I faced extradition attempts and was under house arrest for three months with an ankle tag over five accusations that were completely false. Eventually Cypriot officers interviewed me in London without legal representation, and afterward the case was dropped. Despite the false narrative, I never went to prison for crimes I didn't commit.
How did you rebuild after everything with NEO&BEE fell apart?
I decided to draw a line under the past, retaught myself how to code, and rebuilt everything from scratch. Some former NEO&BEE backers came on as co-founders, and we built FastBitcoins to be lean and bootstrapped, unlike the lavish spending before. We kept payroll small and focused on efficiency.
What is FastBitcoins and how does it work today?
FastBitcoins.com offers a blended physical and digital way to buy Bitcoin. We have stores with hardware in Canada, the UK, Australia, Estonia, Kenya, and Uganda where people can deposit cash to buy Bitcoin. We also launched one of the first cash to lightning network exchanges in January 2019.
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