Neil Bergquist is the Co-Founder and CEO of Coinme, the largest licensed cryptocurrency cash network in the U.S. It offers an enterprise API that crypto-enables legacy financial services, by seamlessly providing the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies with cash to customers. Coinme has partnerships with Coinstar and MoneyGram, which has over 17,000 locations nationwide, located at convenient places, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and retail check cashing locations. Neil Bergquist completed his undergraduate and graduate degree programs at Willamette University-Atkinson Graduate School of Management, in Seattle, Washington, United States, holding a Bachelor of Arts in rhetoric and media studies and a Master of Business Administration.
In 2012, he was running a tech incubator in Seattle. One of the members of that community first shared with him about Bitcoin. At the time, he would spend evenings reading as much as possible about Bitcoin. As Bitcoin is one of the most disruptive technologies, he realized that this technology could be used both as a store of value and also as a medium of exchange. In 2013, Neil Bergquist along with Michael Smyers, Co-founders, learned about the world’s first successful bitcoin ATM and purchased three of the ATMs from the manufacturer. In 2014, they formally established Coinme, making bitcoin accessible to everyone. As online exchanges require a bank account or credit/debit card, restrictive to the unbanked. Moreover, a person purchasing bitcoin for the first time with Coinme need not research how to set up a separate wallet solution to store bitcoin. The bitcoin is instantly loaded to the Coinme Wallet accessible via the Coinme app or website, after purchase.