Palmer Luckey's crypto bank gets approval

In a memo to clients on Tuesday, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan called Friday’s flash crash a blip, not a structural shift. The selloff that sparked ~$20B in liquidations reversed quickly, with bitcoin back near $115k by Monday. Hougan’s checklist? (1) no major institutional failures, (2), the tech held up – DeFi venues like Uniswap, Hyperliquid, and Aave ran smoothly and crypto venues altogether did as well or better than traditional markets would have done in the same situation, and (3), investor panic was relatively muted. Now its a question of – where do we go from here? Read more →

Zach Abrams, the co-founder of Stripe’s stablecoin unit, Bridge, said the company has applied for a national trust bank charter – citing the GENIUS Act – to manage reserves, provide custody, and more. Bridge is joining companies like Circle, Paxos, Ripple, and Palmer Luckey’s Erebor (see story below) in seeking federal oversight (vs. state-by-state licensing), enabling regulated token issuance and custody. Anchorage Digital has been the only crypto-native firm with a federal banking charter since receiving OCC approval in 2021. As a refresher, Stripe closed its Bridge acquisition in February and started rolling out tools in May. As of writing, the OCC hasn’t commented on the application, and reviews typically take months. Read more →

In a breaking story as we went to publish, Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale’s bank, Erebor, gained “preliminary and conditional” approval on its banking charter application. The bank seeks to position itself as a partner for the “innovation economy” — particularly tech companies focused on cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, defence and manufacturing. Read more →

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