Three Years After Silicon Valley Bank Run and Collapse, Peter Thiel's Lone Mountain Bank Officially Opens

BlockBeats News, February 9th, Erebor Bank, a crypto-focused bank, has become the first financial institution to receive a national banking charter during the second term of the Trump administration, officially opening today.

Erebor Bank is a bank specifically designed for the innovation economy, chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), with a focus on artificial intelligence, defense technology, and digital assets. "Erebor," named after the Dwarven kingdom in The Lord of the Rings, symbolizes the long-term development of the crypto financial infrastructure.

Erebor is an infrastructure bank for enterprises, not individual consumers. They plan to provide GPU equipment financing for AI data centers, offer contract guarantee loans for defense tech startups, and operate a truly usable stablecoin business. Erebor will internally integrate a fiat-to-stablecoin exchange system to achieve true 24/7 operation.

The bank also aims to fill the void left by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. Silicon Valley Bank was a key financing channel for early-stage tech companies and venture capital firms, clients that traditional banks often shunned due to high risk.

Notably, Peter Thiel is a major investor/supporter of Erebor Bank. Thiel's Founders Fund has invested in Erebor Bank and is one of Erebor Bank's early and significant endorsers. Erebor's founders, Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale (co-founder of Palantir and founder of 8VC), are long-time partners/allies of Thiel (Palantir itself being a key project of Thiel).

Approximately three years ago, during the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, Peter Thiel exacerbated the situation. Founders Fund advised its portfolio companies to withdraw funds from Silicon Valley Bank on the eve of its collapse, and the fund itself promptly withdrew all its funds. This advice was widely reported by various media outlets, quickly spread within the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and VC community, and accelerated the panic. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed the day after the Founders Fund incited withdrawals, becoming the fastest bank run-induced collapse in history.