The first new bank of Trump's second term has emerged, and it also includes blockchain payments.
For the first time during President Donald Trump's second term, the U.S. federal government has officially approved the creation of a new bank. It's Erebor, a startup bank focused on cryptocurrency and the tech industry.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted Erebor a nationwide banking license last Friday. The bank, established with initial capital of $635 million (approximately 93.1 billion won), targets startups, venture capitalists, and high-net-worth individuals, a segment of the population that has struggled to access financial services since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Erebor is backed by prominent Silicon Valley tech investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, and Elad Gil. It was co-founded by Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey, who remains on the board but plans to no longer be involved in operations.
Specializing in AI, robotics, and defense technology… "We will become the Nonghyup of technology startups."
Erebor's "specialized lending areas" encompass a wide range of emerging industries, including robotics, AI, advanced manufacturing, and defense technology. In particular, its primary clients are companies at the forefront of future industries, such as pharmaceutical production in low-gravity environments, AI-powered factory design, and aerospace research.
“Think of us as the Nonghyup Bank of the tech industry,” Palmer Luckey said in a WSJ interview. “Traditional banks don’t properly value the assets of these companies.”
One of the bank's core strategies is the introduction of a "24/7 blockchain-based payment system," a rare find among other financial institutions. While US banks typically have fixed business hours, Erebor aims to enable 24-hour payment processing using smart contracts and other tools.
In addition, the plan is to provide loans based on non-traditional collateral such as cryptocurrency holdings or unlisted securities, and to support the purchase of high-performance AI semiconductors.
Erebor's value surpasses 4 trillion won, and it also receives federal deposit insurance.
The OCC granted conditional preliminary approval to Erebor in October of last year, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) granted deposit insurance approval in November. Erebor was valued at $2 billion (approximately KRW 2.931 trillion) last year, and its valuation subsequently soared to $4 billion (approximately KRW 5.862 trillion) after securing a $350 million (approximately KRW 512.9 billion) investment led by Lux Capital.
With this, Erebor is quickly gaining attention from the financial technology industry for its symbolic nature as the first new bank issuance under President Trump's second administration and its unique strategy that embraces next-generation technology finance such as cryptocurrency, AI, and blockchain.
As a bridge between Silicon Valley and the cryptocurrency ecosystem, breaking the rigid framework of the traditional financial system, attention is focused on how Erebor will influence market balance.
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From AI and defense technology to blockchain and even cryptocurrency-based payments—the lines between technology and finance are blurring.
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