This upstart stablecoin bank just won a rare OCC charter and raised $40 million. Its CEO is only 25

Even though U.S. dollars are the world’s favorite currency, says Dabitz, many people seeking to get them must rely on an antiquated system of banks with limited hours staffed by clerks. The 25-year-old Dabitz is the CEO of a new type of bank called Augustus that he says addresses this deficiency thanks to a payments architecture designed around AI and stablecoins, not humans. In a sign that Augustus may be on to something, the bank just received a rare federal banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Founded in 2022, Augustus already holds banking licenses in Europe, which permit it to clear cross-border euro transactions. Its customers include large financial institutions, including the global cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and Dabitz says the bank is processing billions of euros, while growing 10x year over year. Augustus has raised $40 million from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Creandum, and from the founders of prominent digital finance firms Ramp, Deel, and Circle. According to Dabitz, Augustus is only the eighth firm to receive a national bank charter from the OCC since 2010. While the agency has handed out other charters to firms like Ripple, these have been in the form of trust charters and similar “skinny” licenses that can come with significant restrictions like a ban on accepting customer deposits or no access to Federal Reserve master accounts. Augustus has obtained its charter at a time when dollars and euros continue to make up 90% of global trade and, in a statement, the company said its mission is to “secure and advance Western currency dominance by upgrading clearing to the AI era.” It is hoping to do so with the help of a clearing system that is built on code capable of interacting with AI agents rather than on the existing legacy system of correspo