Erebor Bank - the Thiel/Anduril-network stablecoin-native national bank

Erebor Bank, N.A. (Columbus, Ohio) is a nationally chartered, FDIC-insured bank co-founded by Palmer Luckey (Anduril) and Joe Lonsdale (8VC; Palantir co-founder), named for Tolkien's dwarven treasure mountain. Neither founder runs it day-to-day - the co-CEOs are Owen Rapaport and Jacob Hirshman (a former Circle adviser).

The charter (fast - and questioned)

• 15 Oct 2025: OCC preliminary conditional approval. 16 Dec 2025: FDIC deposit insurance. Feb 2026: final national charter - reportedly the first de-novo national bank charter under the current administration, ~8 months application-to-opening.
• Apr 2026: Sen. Elizabeth Warren + Democrats formally asked the OCC + Luckey about the speed and the founders' political connections. That is a raised question, not a finding - the impropriety angle is contested.

The model: SVB's replacement, stablecoin-native

• Explicitly serves the frontier-tech + crypto clients stranded by the 2023 SVB / Silvergate collapse - AI, crypto, defense, manufacturing startups and the people who work at/invest in them.
• Stablecoin-native: plans to hold stablecoins on its balance sheet and aims to be "the most regulated entity conducting and facilitating stablecoin transactions" in the US - distinct from the bank-consortium tokenized-deposit approach (spec-bank-digitalmoney-consortia).
• Growth: deposits ~$1.1B (Mar) -> ~$4.6B (Jul 2026), ~$1B/month; in talks to raise ~$1.5B at ~$8B pre / ~$9.5B post - which would make it the most valuable US private bank less than six months after opening (final terms not closed).

Why it's on the map

Erebor is the banking layer of the Thiel network: via Luckey/Lonsdale/Founders Fund it extends the "PayPal mafia" from payments (PayPal), data (Palantir), and defense (Anduril) into chartered deposit-taking. The map already tracks that network; Erebor is it acquiring its own bank - and one built around stablecoin rails, right as the CLARITY/GENIUS stablecoin fights play out.

Honest limits: charter dates, founders, model, and disclosed deposit/valuation figures are fact; the "political connections sped the charter" concern is a raised question (contested); the "network consolidation" reading is interpretation.

Sources: OCC/FDIC charter actions; FT/Reuters + crypto-press; Warren/Democratic OCC letters (Apr 2026). Cross-refs: Palmer_Luckey, Joe_Lonsdale, 8VC, Founders_Fund, Peter_Thiel, Anduril, Silicon_Valley_Bank, OCC, Stablecoins, PayPal_Mafia.

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