Bank-like Bitcoin Portal Neo Opens First Branch in Cyprus
The world's first brick-and-mortar bitcoin deposit and financial services portal, Neo, opened the doors to its flagship branch in Cyprus at 10:30am local time today. Neo is the 'bank-like' arm of bitcoin business twins Neo & Bee, with Bee serving as the payment processing network. Cypriot residents will have access to services "allowing them to interact with their money like they would with Euro deposits in any traditional bank", including deposit, savings, business and merchant accounts. If successful, Neo promises to engrave 24th February 2014 as a landmark date in bitcoin's history.....
Related News
As we noted on Sunday, Cyprus-based Neo & Bee has carried out the launch of their first (and flagship) branch in the Engomi suburb of Nicosia. This bitcoin financial services company is the first of its kind, opening physical bank-like branches to make interacting with the complex digital currency simple. The launch has been highly-publicized in the nation, from TV to paper press, billboards, and general word of mouth. With today's launch come three new products (as noted yesterday): The Instant-Access Bitcoin Wallet will be a standard bitcoin wallet that allows users to store their funds.....
Neo & Bee Chief Danny Brewster is apparently wanted by authorities, according to a report on Friday from the Cyprus Mail. Brewster, who recently left the country in search of investors for his failing business is wanted on suspicion of fraud. According to a Cyprus Mail source, Brewster is "a person of interest in an ongoing investigation". Brewster was assumed to have fled the country and run off with customer money not terribly long ago, but spoke up and said he was actively looking for investors to save the business. Alleged threats against his daughter, he says, kept him out of Cyprus.....
Cyprus was long used as an offshore haven for fiat currencies, but the financial crisis of 2012-2013 culminated in massive levies on uninsured bank accounts in Cyprus with deposits of at least 100,000 euro. That was in the spring of 2013, and the so-called “bail-in” shook many people’s confidence in the security of their fiat wealth. Bitcoin’s value against fiat currencies took off right around this same time, leading many to conclude there was a significant causal effect. Since then, Cyprus has become a hotbed of Bitcoin and cryptocoin activity. The University of Nicosia began accepting....
Crypto bank Unicas, a joint venture between Cashaa and United Multi State Credit Cooperative Society, has expanded its operations by opening another physical branch. The bank believes that the Indian government will introduce positive crypto regulation and not impose an outright ban on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. New Physical Crypto Bank Branch Opens in New Delhi Physical crypto bank Unicas has opened another branch, Cashaa announced last week. Unicas is a joint venture between crypto banking platform Cashaa and United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society. Noting that this will be....
Despite having issued a couple of warnings in the past with regard to the use of bitcoin, the Central Bank of Cyprus has essentially confirmed that bitcoin is not illegal, and there isn't quite anything they can do about it - but again warned of the potential dangers of getting involved. "Bitcoin is not illegal, but at the same time neither is it subject to control or regulation," a source at the bank told the Cyprus Mail. Cyprus-based Neo & Bee have taken the central bank's hands-off attitude to their advantage, launching the first of what is expected to be a number of physical branches....