Augustus, a payments startup backed by Peter Thiel, has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to launch a national bank built around artificial intelligence and stablecoin payments. The approval, announced Monday, allows the firm to bring its European banking operations to the US as competition heats up to modernize cross-border settlement with tokenized dollars and blockchain technology.
Augustus National Bank will be the first clearing bank for the AI era, the company said, designed to process transactions at compute speed for machine agents. Founded in 2022, Augustus already handles billions of dollars for institutional clients like Kraken. The charter becomes effective once pre-opening requirements are met.
This move places Augustus among a select group of digital asset firms reaching advanced stages in the federal chartering process. The company has raised about $40 million from Valar Ventures, Creandum, and the founders of Ramp and Deel.