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About Erebor
Erebor is a crypto-native national bank serving AI, crypto and defense startups, holding a full OCC charter and FDIC deposit insurance to provide federally regulated deposits, payments and lending to the innovation economy. It addresses the banking vacuum left by the exit of banks like SVB and traditional banks' reluctance to serve digital-asset clients by offering insured deposit accounts and blockchain payment rails for 24/7 settlement. Its core mechanisms include FDIC-insured deposit accounts, stablecoin-denominated payment and conversion rails, crypto-collateralized loans, and equipment financing and venture debt for defense and hard-tech firms, combining a traditional bank charter with on-chain payment rails.
The trade-off is that as a branchless limited-purpose bank it does not take retail deposits and concentrates in sensitive sectors like crypto and defense, making it highly exposed to regulatory scrutiny and policy shifts. Its scale-up depends heavily on rapid deposit accumulation, and if crypto and hard-tech client acquisition slows, asset growth and the path to profitability will be tested.
In 2025 Erebor was founded by Palmer Luckey and others as a crypto-native bank serving AI, crypto and defense startups, filling the gap left by SVB's collapse.
In October 2025 Erebor won OCC preliminary approval, in December FDIC insurance and a $350 million raise; in February 2026 it secured a full charter and by October deposits hit $7 billion.
In early February 2026, Erebor obtained a national bank charter from the OCC and opened for business; FDIC deposit insurance was approved in December 2025, with about $635 million in initial capital. Deposits rose from $1.1 billion at end-March to $4.06 billion on June 30 and $4.6 billion at end-July, across roughly 500 to 600 customers averaging about $7 million each. On August 10, 2026, the Financial Times reported it was raising about $1.5 billion at an $8 billion pre-money valuation, or roughly $9.5 billion post-money; on August 3 it was one of the lead arrangers on a $200 million credit facility for Valar Atomics; annualized recurring revenue has passed $100 million. The OCC requires a 12% Tier 1 leverage ratio for its first three years, about double that of a typical bank. Future strategy and roadmap: reach profitability by the end of 2026, keep lending against GPUs, private equity and onchain assets, and use stablecoin rails for 24/7 settlement serving AI, defense and crypto companies.
Erebor's moat is deposit relationships rather than the charter itself: deposits rose from $1.1 billion in March to $4.6 billion at the end of July and annualized recurring revenue passed $100 million, driven by AI compute, defense and crypto firms moving operating balances in. Lending is priced by collateral type, with crypto capped at 80% LTV, private equity below 50% and equipment such as GPUs up to 90%, while the loan-to-deposit ratio is held near 50%. A $1.5 billion raise in progress is meant to lift capital ahead of loan growth, but deposits concentrated among portfolio companies of the same investors is where SVB-style risk repeats.
Palmer Luckey is the founder of Erebor. He attended the University of Southern California, built Oculus VR as a teenager, saw the company bought by Facebook in 2014, and founded the defence technology company Anduril in 2017. He assembled the Erebor team in 2025 and owns recruiting and external communication.
Owen Rapaport is CEO. He came from crypto compliance consulting, founding Aer Compliance to build anti-money-laundering programmes for exchanges and custodians, with hands-on work on Bank Secrecy Act and travel rule implementations. Michael Hagedorn is president, arriving from Wells Fargo where he ran regional banking and brings deposit, clearing and branch operations experience; Jacob Hirshman is chief strategy officer, who worked on Circle's stablecoin efforts and trained at Sullivan & Cromwell. Compliance and credit report to the president and strategy and legal to the CEO.
On 15 October 2025, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted preliminary conditional approval for a de novo national bank charter to Erebor Bank, National Association, which aims to serve virtual-currency firms and ultra-high-net-worth clients.