Erebor Bank Bets on AI, Crypto and Defense With its Sparkling New OCC Charter

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It’s fairly uncommon to see new banks pop up in the US, as the 2008 financial crisis and Dodd-Frank Act together created a number of requirements that made banks very expensive and difficult to run. 

Which is why it’s even more uncommon to see banks pigeonholing themselves into specific sectors.  Erebor Bank, for example, seems bent on pursuing a unique strategy for banking by focusing on three areas: AI, crypto and defense firms. 

But why these areas? Because they have historically been de-banked or underserved by traditional banking companies, Diogo Mónica, a board director at Erebor and general partner at Haun Ventures, shared on Token Relations’ Talking Tokens podcast. 

“We love crypto companies, we can underwrite those customer risks [and] we understand that type of business deeply,” Mónica said. “Number two, defense generally has been seen as unsavory business by the larger banks, and you'd be surprised even today to see in 2026 how many defense tech companies can actually open bank accounts.” 

And while AI companies might not be underbanked, they’re underserved, Mónica added. “There are products that they want, that the traditional banks can't really do, create and underwrite,” he said, pointing to GPU-backed loans as an example of service that traditional banks don’t underwrite, but Erebor would.

Erebor opened in early February with $635 million in capital and a capital ratio of 12%, which Mónica dubbed “extremely conservative.” 

He isn’t wrong: banks in the US usually have capital ratios of about 3%. A higher capital ratio means a bank holds more capital in proportion to risk-weighted assets like loans or investments, so even if there are losses, those can be absorbed and the business can remain solvent, protect depositors, and so on.

Erebor evolved out of Atticus, a stablecoin infrastructure startup launched by Jacob Hirshman (formerly of Circle) and Owen Rapaport (formerly of Aer Compliance). In May 2025, Atticus was eyeing a valuation between $1.5 billion to $2 billion, Axios reported, with backing from its now-co-founder Palmer Luckey, as well as Haun Ventures.

In February, Erebor received the first national OCC bank charter under Trump’s second administration. This is significant because unlike many fintech platforms, which use other banking charters under the hood, Erebor’s charter is in-house. 

“Ultimately, to deliver a world-class product, you have to own the charter and you have to own the regulatory ability,” Mónica said. “If you don't own it, you're renting it. And basically if something bad happens, the speed of execution in your product is dependent on somebody else that is not you.”

“It's a bad idea to have these two responsibilities being divided,” and that's why dozens of charters are being applied for by other entities today, Mónica said. 

Mónica thinks we’re today seeing the regulatory pendulum swing in favor of opening the door to new banks that are building fresh APIs and systems. 

While he’s clear that the banking business doesn’t have singular winners, there’s space for certain banks to dominate market share by honing in on niches. Just look at Silicon Valley Bank: before it collapsed in March 2023, it was where Silicon Valley startups and businesses first went to for capital and banking services because it understood their business models and had the services to meet them where they stood. 

Similarly, Erebor is applying its technology and business smarts to provide faster and better banking for startups building in crypto, defense and AI. “I think the big banks are definitely gonna feel the pressure and innovation required to keep up, [and that] is going to increase because so far they've had this advantage, which is the charter, which was the untouchable portion of this.” 

While Erebor’s strategy is in place and the bank is open to startups and high-net-worth individuals, Mónica feels there’s much to be built around its banking services. 

“I'm calling it the American Dynamism Bank,” Mónica said. “It's a bank that has the United States’ interests in mind. And it's charging forward and creating better technology and services, serving these kinds of industries. That was something that really didn't exist and it's yet another unlock.”

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

For today’s episode, I interviewed Diogo Mónica, general partner at Haun Ventures, executive chairman and co-founder of Anchorage Digital, and board member of Erebor. Diogo explains how stablecoins, tokenized equities, and generative finance are evolving and why Haun Ventures invested in Palmer Luckey's Erebor Bank, which received the first national bank charter under the second Trump administration.

He walks through why Erebor raised $635 million in committed capital to serve AI, crypto, and defense, how OCC-chartered banks differ from fintech apps that operate through partner banks, and why getting a proper federal charter matters for building trust. The conversation covers the founding team's expertise spanning Oculus, Anduril, Circle, and compliance backgrounds, how Erebor secured its charter in under eight months, and why this marks a shift toward more crypto-friendly banking regulation.

TIMESTAMPS 

00:00 – Intro

01:44 – Why institutions are here but crypto tokens aren't going up

03:23 – Generative finance: turning language directly into financial products with AI

05:31 – Why Haun Ventures invested in Erebor, Palmer Luckey's new bank

09:10 – How Erebor secured its OCC charter in under eight months

12:22 – What an OCC charter means and why it matters for crypto banking

14:08 – How Erebor differs from fintechs like Mercury that aren't actual banks

17:43 – The future of banking: will new rails beat old incumbents

19:24 – Building trust in crypto banking after historical de-banking experiences

21:07 – The challenge of opening bank accounts with "crypto" in company names

22:07 – Behind Erebor's founding team

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