Episode Ep 782 October 19, 2026 37 min 39s

Debanking and Bitcoin Business Accounts in the EU | Prashanth Chandrashekar SLP782

From Stephan Livera Podcast Stephan Livera

Prashanth Chandrashekar argues that much of Europe's debanking comes down to how banks score transfers. Money arriving from a crypto exchange's account is treated as a higher-risk third-party payment, while a transfer between two accounts in your own name passes with far fewer flags. Bringin's answer is a named virtual IBAN for each customer, which he says lowers the risk of being debanked rather than removing it.

Prashanth, who is from India, started Bringin after moving to Estonia holding Bitcoin and finding he couldn't easily spend it. He now runs the company's consumer app and its new business accounts.

They cover MiCA's licensing reset, which by his figures left only about 30% of earlier firms licensed but lets the survivors passport across the EU; accounts closed without explanation under tipping-off rules; and how named IBANs differ from the deposit IBANs exchanges hand out. On the consumer wallet, built on Spark, he is direct about the trade-offs: operators are mostly centralized and can see payments, though they cannot move funds alone.

On Bringin for Business, he describes pilot users such as mining-rig sellers paying suppliers abroad, plus stablecoin support and accounting exports. The custody model differs from the consumer app: keys sit in a hosted Turnkey enclave with spending policies, Bringin holds an extra key in multi-director setups, seed export is discouraged, and ownership changes run through Bringin's backend. Third-party euro payments were promised within days of recording, and corporate cards are not yet available.

Disclosure: Stephan is a small investor in and advisor to Bringin.

Timestamps:

00:00 — Intro

00:37 — MiCA: Costly but Passportable

03:28 — Debanking: Why Banks Block Exchange Flows

07:04 — Named vIBANs vs Exchange Deposit IBANs

11:25 — Spark Self-Custody and Its Trust Trade-offs

13:03 — Why Banks Are Harder on Businesses

15:22 — Who Joined the Business Pilot

18:08 — Beyond Debanking: Accounting Headaches

20:31 — Business Keys in Turnkey Enclaves

24:53 — Key Rotation Runs Through Bringin's Backend