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Thiel’s Epic Quest for the SVB Crown: A Tale of Crypto and Titans

BBG News

Amidst the ruins of Silicon Valley Bank, a shadow looms, not of despair, but of opportunity. Peter Thiel, a man whose name is whispered in the halls of tech and finance with a mix of reverence and fear, has spotted a chink in the armor of the financial world. Alongside other titans of industry, he plans to rise from the ashes of SVB’s 2023 collapse, not with a mere phoenix, but with a new financial institution, named Erebor, a nod to the grand halls of Middle-earth, where gold and power intertwine. This new entity aims to serve the crypto companies and startups that have been left to wander the barren wasteland of financing since SVB’s downfall. 🏦💰

The collapse of SVB in 2023 was a tempest that shook the very foundations of the US banking sector, leading to a tightening of lending standards and a void that no institution has dared to fill—until now. For context, SVB was the patron saint of nearly half of all venture-backed technology and life sciences companies in the United States, a role that left a gaping hole in the market. 🌪️

This week’s Crypto Biz delves into Thiel’s latest gambit, a new recovery system for institutional crypto investors, and the curious case of Michael Saylor’s Strategy, whose massive crypto windfall in Q2 is as impressive as it is fraught with asterisks. 🎯

Billionaire group wants to build SVB competitor

Billionaires Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, and Joe Lonsdale, a trio of modern-day alchemists, have filed for a bank charter for Erebor, a financial institution designed to serve startups, cryptocurrency companies, and other so-called risky businesses, as reported by the Financial Times on Wednesday. 📜

The tech group’s ambition is to fill the gap left by SVB’s collapse—a market that is both a golden opportunity and a potential minefield. Thiel, a man who has long been a vocal advocate for Bitcoin (BTC) and an investor in Bullish, a crypto exchange that has reportedly filed for an initial public offering in the United States, is no stranger to the volatile world of digital assets. 🤑

Circuit launches crypto recovery system for institutions

“Most people aren’t equipped for true self-custody,” declares Harry Donnelly, founder and CEO of Circuit, a company that has just unveiled an enterprise-grade recovery solution for digital assets. Powered by Automatic Asset Extraction (AAE) technology, Circuit’s system is designed to help institutions avoid the catastrophic, permanent loss of digital assets. 🛡️

The solution has already gone live with two institutional clients: Tungsten, a custodian based in the UAE, and Palisade, a crypto infrastructure company. “Institutions view asset recovery as a fundamental requirement, not a nice-to-have,” Donnelly asserts. “As more enterprises hold digital assets, ensuring those assets don’t simply vanish into the ether becomes critical. The institutional mindset is about risk management and fiduciary duty.” 📊

Circuit’s launch is particularly timely, given that estimates suggest between 11% and 18% of Bitcoin’s fixed supply is already lost forever. A sobering thought, indeed. 🤔

Strategy set to post massive Bitcoin gains in Q2

Business intelligence firm turned Bitcoin treasury company Strategy is poised to report a staggering $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 CryptoMoon, 250 businesses now hold Bitcoin, with 26 announcing BTC treasury strategies just last month. 📈

Robinhood launches layer-2 on Arbitrum

Robinhood, the digital brokerage with over 25 million users, is expanding its reach into the digital asset realm by launching a dedicated layer-2 blockchain on Arbitrum for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This new tokenization initiative will grant 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. 📜

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse on the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

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2025-07-04 23:21

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