Palmer Luckey argues that relying on another bank's charter forces you to appease their risk tolerance and political pressures. Owning the charter means "the buck stops with you," ensuring you control your own de-banking and censorship decisions rather than having them dictated by upstream partners.
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Alpha ton Capital publicly announced a $30M investment in Anduril to become a public proxy for the private company. Anduril's CEO, Palmer Luckey, immediately refuted the claim and blocked the share transfer, exposing the high-risk nature of this 'treasury company' strategy without prior, explicit consent.
Palmer Luckey's bank, Erebor, takes the unusual position of complying only with U.S. law, explicitly stating it "will not comply with spurious rulings from people who have no real jurisdiction." This contrasts with global banks beholden to multiple markets and is a key differentiator for companies aligned with U.S. interests.
Contrary to the idea that all capital is good capital, elite founders strongly dislike SPVs. They want to know exactly who is on their cap table and view SPVs as a risky, obfuscated way to assemble capital that compromises control.
America's system of nearly 10,000 banks is not a market inefficiency but a direct result of the founding fathers' aversion to centralized, oligopolistic British banks. They deliberately architected a fractured system to prevent the concentration of financial power and to better serve local business people, a principle that still shapes the economy today.
Contrary to being another SVB, Palmer Luckey's new bank Erebor is designed as its opposite. It targets tech and defense customers with a hyper-conservative model focused on high deposit-to-loan ratios, prioritizing capital safety over yield for its startup clients.
The controversy over OpenAI seeking government loan guarantees highlights a key founder responsibility: maximizing shareholder value by securing any available public funds, even if it creates poor optics. Lobbying for handouts is framed as a strategic best practice, not a moral failing.
Granting a full co-founder 50% equity is a massive, often regrettable, early decision. A better model is to bring on a 'partner' with a smaller, vested equity stake (e.g., 10%). This provides accountability and complementary skills without sacrificing majority ownership and control.
Instead of reacting to court orders, Palmer Luckey's Erebor bank preemptively works with intelligence services. This strategy aims to create a fraud-resistant platform, attracting legitimate clients and deterring malicious actors from the start, turning compliance into a competitive advantage.
The primary strategic reason for a large platform to issue its own stablecoin isn't just yield, but control. Relying on an external stablecoin creates platform dependency, making the business vulnerable to changes in fees or strategy, much like Zynga's reliance on the Facebook platform.
During Standard Chartered's turnaround, CEO Bill Winters made regulators his top priority, even at the short-term expense of shareholders. He argues this is a non-negotiable survival tactic, as regulators are the ones who grant a bank its fundamental license to operate.
