Palmer Luckey – whose fast -growing Anduril defense firm takes place on the Revolution of Modern War – now supports an ambitious and friendly banking start -up which aims to rethink the world of finance, learned the post.
The 32 -year -old technology tycoon supports an emerging financial company which aims to ensure the stability of Silicon Valley – and which mainly focuses on helping technological entrepreneurs to build their activities in relation to maximizing deposit yields, initiates said.
The startup is temporarily called “Erebor” – a reference The mountain where the dragon Smauug stores its golden treasure in the prequel “The Lord of the Rings” by Jrr Tolkien “The Hobbit” – but the nickname is not final and could change, indicated the sources.
In addition to species, sources have said that Erebor aims to manage Stablecoin deposits, a digital currency class with a value directly fixed to a “stable” asset, such as the US dollar or gold.
Luckey – who created the Oculus VR helmet and whose net value is set by Forbes at 3.6 billion dollars – is associated with the banking startup with technological investor Joe Lonsdale, sources said close to the project.
The Lonsdale venture capital company is carrying out a round of fundraising of $ 225 million for the startup – species that will be used to meet federal regulatory requirements for the launch of a bank, sources said.
The expected post-money assessment of the startup could not be learned immediately.
The representatives of Luckey and Lonsdale – who will each take sits on the board of directors of the new company, according to sources – has not immediately commented.
The Erebor project is at its beginnings and the plans were not finalized, added the sources. The partners have not yet set up a date to start operations.
Although Luckey is co -founder, he should not occupy an executive role or be involved in daily operations in Erebor. The names of other co-founders and venture capital companies involved in the initial fund collection cycle could not be learned immediately.
Erebor’s talks started shortly after the sudden collapse in 2023 of Silicon Valley Bank – once the bank is essential for technological startups and venture capital companies, sources said.
SVB imploded after the increase in interest rates sparked a liquidity crisis which left customers incapable of accessing their accounts and paying payroll. The federals finally moved in to guarantee deposits in order to avoid a complete financial crisis.
The supply of deposits and support for the hatch will allow Erebor to offer constant service even during holidays – offering flexibility to agile startups, sources said.
Stablecoins have acquired greater adoption in recent months while President Trump adopts a lighter regulatory approach to digital currencies.
Stablecoins are considered a less volatile investment option than cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which can undergo major price oscillations during periods of market instability. Congress is about to adopt the Act on Engineering, which would establish a regulatory framework for Stablecoins.
Luckey and his allies are also looking for an alternative to traditional fractional reserve banks – where banks deploy most of their customer deposits while only keeping a relatively low quantity in the reserve at any time.
The group wants a conservative assessment and has planned to impose a maximum limit on the loan / debt ratio, potentially in the 50%stadium, according to familiar sources with internal discussions.
A concept under study consists in offering a bank account with one by one classified deposits – which means that all the assets stored in Erebor would be maintained there, the sources added.
The startup would mark another company for Luckey, whose Andundil company is in competition directly with traditional defense entrepreneurs such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Andundil recently obtained an evaluation of $ 30.5 billion in a round supported by the founding fund of Peter Thiel.
The name Andundil is another leading head “Lords of the Rings”, referring to the favorite character of Aragorn fans.
Luckey sold Oculus VR to Facebook in 2014 for $ 2 billion. The technological entrepreneur was then controversially dismissed from Facebook in 2017 after giving $ 10,000 to a Pro-Donald Trump group.
In a major turn, Luckey recently ended his quarrel with Mark Zuckerberg de Meta.
The couple announced that Meta and Andundil will associate to develop an augmented reality and virtual reality devices fed by the AI to be used by the American army.
