# Erebor is built for deep tech and always-on dollar settlement

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/erebor-is-built-for-deep-tech-and-always-on-dollar/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Palmer Luckey](https://realalpha.app/builders/palmer-luckey/) · Palmer Luckey is founder of Oculus and ModRetro, launching Erebor. · Co-founded Anduril, which builds autonomous defense systems, and designed the Oculus Rift that revived VR.
- Host: [John Coogan](https://realalpha.app/people/john-coogan/) · Co-host, TBPN · Co-founded Soylent and Lucy; OpenAI bought his show TBPN in April 2026.
- Host: [Jordi Hays](https://realalpha.app/people/jordi-hays/) · Co-host, TBPN · Founded Branded Native; co-founded fintech Capital, which Rho bought.
- Show: TBPN
- Episode: [Palmer Luckey: Why I Started My Own Bank](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/), Feb 20, 2026
- Moment: 0:45 to 3:34 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/erebor-is-built-for-deep-tech-and-always-on-dollar/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=45

## Quote

> “you can at least be the **last man standing**.”
> — [Palmer Luckey](https://realalpha.app/builders/palmer-luckey/) at [2:08](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=128) · TBPN

## Takeaways

1. SVB’s failure pushed Luckey to pursue a bank of his own.
2. Erebor aims to serve complex sectors such as deep tech and energy.
3. Dollar-backed crypto can enable settlement at any time.

## About this segment

Palmer Luckey says Erebor grew out of the lack of banks that understood his businesses, especially after SVB failed. He wants a conservative bank for deep tech, with round-the-clock dollar-backed payments.

From “Palmer Luckey: Why I Started My Own Bank”, Feb 20, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/)

## Transcript

From the transcript TBPN publishes with the episode.

[0:48](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=48) Take us back in When did this project start? What was the inciting element? Why is this important? How'd you pick this to work on?

[0:58](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=58) Look, there's a lot of there's a lot of things that I could point to, but it really boils down to I've been looking at starting a bank for a while primarily for my own personal use because there weren't banks out there that really understood my business, my businesses, the things that I was doing. Silicon Valley Bank was doing a reasonable job, but then they went out of business and took everybody's money with them and had to have the government bail everybody out. I think that was really kind of the thing that that got me very serious about it. I realized that you didn't have banks that were aligned with The United States, interests that were aligned with deep tech, hard tech, energy, the things that are really complex and hard to understand, but that do really matter that could also serve them in a meaningful way. I mean, you have farmers banks that serve communities that are doing agriculture.

[1:47](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=107) You have banks certainly that are doing oil and gas quite well, but when it comes to tech, it's a pretty sparse field. And so I I I started to think, how do you build a bank that could serve those things? How could you do it a very conservative way, very very low risk way where you can ensure you're not gonna go out of business, you're not gonna force everyone to rely on government bail You may not be able to survive a total financial collapse. Yeah. Banks rarely can, but you can at least be the last man standing.

[2:12](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=132) And so thinking about that and then also a lot of things that new technology enables, like using US Dollar backed cryptocurrencies to have $3.65, $24.07 settlement of payments, which is something that a lot of businesses need and very few get. You kind of stack all these things together, and it becomes clear that there's there's room for a company to to to be a real bank for real companies doing real things.

[2:34](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=154) So is there a network effect there? Because if I'm on Arabore and Jordy's on Arabore and we can both have $24.07 settlement, but someone else is on a different bank and they don't have $24.07 settlement, we're gonna have a good experience. And then maybe to get out of the network. How does that work?

[2:51](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=171) I think that there will be network effects, but to be honest, whatever network effects there are will probably be pretty short lived. Mhmm. I think that pretty quickly, everyone is gonna realize that they need to support these And I think that when like, seeing this administration's support for using specifically dollar backed stablecoins. They're not saying we're gonna move everybody off of the dollar. We're gonna move them off of, you know, the The United States currency as the reserve currency for world. But I think probably most banks are gonna get drug into this. The difference is that we are trying to do it from the start.

[3:20](https://realalpha.app/v/KO27V-hsmvY/?t=200) So so so is there a network effect? Probably. But I think most of the forward looking companies that would value that network effect, that one in particular, see see see that in the next few years, probably all banks are gonna be forced to adopt this to be competitive.