Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires have reportedly spotted a major market opportunity in the void left by Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) 2023 collapse. They are now planning to launch a new financial institution — named after a Lord of the Rings reference — to serve crypto companies and startups that have struggled to secure financing since SVB’s downfall.
SVB’s dramatic collapse in 2023 triggered contagion across the US banking sector and led to tighter lending standards. While its assets were later acquired by First Citizens Bank, no institution has stepped in to fill SVB’s unique role — until now.
For context: Before its collapse, SVB banked nearly half of all venture-backed technology and life sciences companies in the United States.
This week’s Crypto Biz dives into Thiel’s latest bet, a new recovery system for institutional crypto investors, and Michael Saylor’s Strategy, whose massive crypto windfall in Q2 comes with a significant asterisk.
Billionaires Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale have filed for a bank charter for Erebor, a new financial institution aimed at serving startups, cryptocurrency companies and other so-called risky businesses, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The tech group hopes to fill the gap left by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — a potentially lucrative, if volatile, market.
Thiel is no stranger to digital assets. He’s an outspoken Bitcoin (BTC) advocate and has also invested in Bullish, a crypto exchange that has reportedly filed for an initial public offering in the United States.
“Most people aren’t equipped for true self-custody,” says Harry Donnelly, founder and CEO of Circuit, which has just launched an enterprise-grade recovery solution for digital assets.
Powered by Automatic Asset Extraction (AAE) technology, Circuit’s system helps institutions avoid catastrophic, permanent losses of digital assets. The solution has gone live with two institutional clients: UAE-based custodian Tungsten and Palisade, a crypto infrastructure company.
“Institutions view asset recovery as a fundamental requirement, not a nice-to-have,” Donnelly said. “As more enterprises hold digital assets, ensuring those assets don’t simply disappear becomes critical. The institutional mindset is about risk management and fiduciary duty.”
Circuit’s launch comes amid estimates that between 11% and 18% of Bitcoin’s fixed supply is already lost forever.
Business intelligence firm turned Bitcoin treasury company Strategy is expected to report $13 billion in unrealized gains from its digital asset holdings, even as its core business continues to struggle.
Strategy has amassed 597,325 BTC, generating a Bitcoin yield of 7.8% in the second quarter, according to Chairman and founder Michael Saylor. The company continued to stack sats last week, acquiring $531 million worth of BTC.
Despite this crypto windfall, Strategy’s software business is projected to generate $112.8 million in revenue in the second quarter, a decline from the previous year.
Strategy’s bold Bitcoin bet has become a case study for dozens of companies that have adopted similar approaches. According to Cointelegraph, 250 businesses now hold Bitcoin, with 26 announcing BTC treasury strategies just last month.
Robinhood, the digital brokerage with over 25 million users, is expanding its push into digital assets by launching a dedicated layer-2 blockchain on Arbitrum for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The new tokenization initiative will give investors in the European Union access to more than 200 US stock and ETF tokens.
The announcement comes just days after Robinhood introduced micro futures contracts for Bitcoin, Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP).
This latest move builds on Robinhood’s broader advocacy for pro-tokenization legislation in the United States, as it works toward launching a real-world asset exchange.
