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Institution-governed · Audit-native · Non-custodial

The Control Plane for
Institutional Digital Assets.

Aetherum connects institutional identity, policy enforcement, transaction authorization, controlled execution, and audit-native evidence for credit unions and community banks deploying digital-asset lending, tokenization, payments, and settlement — without replacing their core systems.
28
USPTO Applications Filed
Core
Governance & Evidence
No
Core Replacement Required
01 · Problem

Digital-asset execution is available. Institutional control must travel with it.

01Financial institutions need to authorize new financial workflows without fragmenting policy authority or customer relationships.
02Existing core systems were not built for crypto collateral, wallet permissions, stablecoins, or on-chain audit records.
03Consumer crypto tools do not satisfy credit-union governance, examiner, risk, and compliance requirements.
04Most vendors solve custody, trading, or payments. Credit unions need institutional control across the whole workflow.
02 · Platform

Aetherum is the institutional digital-asset control plane across identity, governance, execution, and evidence.

FOUNDATIONAL PLATFORM
Core Governance & Evidence
Institution-scoped identity, policy evaluation, pre-execution authorization, and linked audit evidence form the common platform.
APPLICATION MODULE
Stablecoin Payments & Settlement
Orchestrate approved money movement through supported providers, with institutional approvals, transaction status, exception handling, and reconciliation.
APPLICATION MODULE
DACS Lending & Collateral Risk
Support institution-originated lending with collateral risk assessment, LTV controls, and officer review. The institution remains the lender and decision authority.

Business model: recurring core subscriptions + optional modules + scoped implementation + transparent usage tiers.

03 · Differentiation

The new Aetherum stack: Identity → Policy → TxGuard → Modular Execution.

Identity V4

Resolves the institution and governed member relationship that applies before a regulated digital-asset operation proceeds.

Policy / Asset Controls

Defines which assets, operation types, limits, and policy conditions are permitted for each institution.

TxGuard

Evaluates required controls before value moves and preserves explicit authorization evidence.

Modular Smart Accounts

Applies bounded, revocable, institution-governed permissions to ERC-7579-compatible account workflows.

04 · Platform Applications

A complete product layer around the member, the asset, the transaction, and the examiner.

DACS
Digital-Asset Collateral Risk Assessment
Risk-based LTV, collateral scoring, tax-position intelligence, and explainable underwriting.
Proprietary Technology
Wallets
Non-Custodial Wallet Infrastructure
Member-controlled wallet experiences with institution-governed permissions and policy context.
Non-Custodial
Stablecoins
Disbursement & Settlement
Stablecoin money movement across supported rails with compliance and servicing controls.
Multi-Rail
Tokenization
Governed Tokenization Control Plane
Institution-authorized asset state flows into ERC-7943-based on-chain lifecycle controls, reconciliation, and examiner-ready evidence.
Deployment scope varies · Proprietary Technology
Participation Tokens
Compliance-Gated Digital Participation
Institution-scoped token representations carry eligibility, lifecycle restrictions, and separated administrative authority into the on-chain instrument.
ERC-7943 · Proprietary Technology
Staff Tools
CU Operations Portal
Loan officer, compliance, member-management, risk, and examiner-facing operational workflows.
Scope subject to diligence
05 · Compliance

Non-custodial should not mean ungoverned.

Aetherum separates asset custody from institutional governance. The member can control the wallet while the credit union retains policy, authorization, risk, and audit control around the financial workflow.
Fail-Closed
Required controls stop execution when unresolved.
Uncertainty does not silently become permission.
Examiner-Ready
Every material decision is reconstructable.
Policy context, decision outcome, and transaction evidence are preserved.
Institution-Owned
CU policy remains the governing source.
The rail can change while institutional control remains legible.
06 · Market

Credit unions and community banks need digital-asset capabilities without surrendering institutional control.

Who We Serve
Credit Unions, Community Banks & CUSOs
Community-based institutions that want digital-asset products without core replacement or custody reinvention.
Initial Commercial Scope
Core Governance & Evidence
Core Governance & Evidence anchors a funded institutional use case. Stablecoin Payments and DACS Lending are optional applications.
Expansion
Payments, Stablecoins & Tokenized Credit
Once the control plane is installed, additional digital-asset workflows can operate under the same governance layer.
09 · Traction

Technology developed. Commercial validation is the next milestone.

IP
28 USPTO-Filed Applications
Lending, identity, policy controls, TxGuard, modular smart accounts, governed tokenization, compliance-gated participation tokens, audit evidence, and stablecoin workflows.
Build
Demonstration Stack
Digital-asset lending, wallet, settlement, compliance, and staff workflows demonstrated in the operating product.
Rails
Stablecoin / OMS Path
Non-custodial wallet and stablecoin money movement strategy aligned around Polygon OMS and related rails.
Partners
CU Ecosystem Focus
Institutional and channel discussions support discovery; introductions are not contracted customers or distribution revenue.
07 · Commercial Model

Institutional software revenue, with transparent usage-based economics.

Recurring Core
$50K–$150K / year
Illustrative annual institutional license for governance, policy, evidence, API access, configuration and support. Scope and price are negotiated per institution.
Initial Lending Workflow
$750 per funded loan
Illustrative funded-loan workflow fee covering DACS risk analysis, authorization and servicing evidence. A defined funding event—not each intermediate API call—is billable.
Usage-Based
0.75% of funded principal
Illustrative transaction-orchestration fee, charged once for the agreed disbursement event. No duplicate fee on each wallet transfer, authorization or settlement hop.

Expansion: separately contracted payments, tokenized-asset governance, risk and audit modules. Provider, custody, ACH, settlement and card costs are disclosed as direct charges or pass-throughs—not assumed software margin.

All pricing is illustrative, not contracted revenue or a current rate card. Optional yield or other regulated activities require separate approvals and are excluded from the base model.

08 · Institutional Economics

The institution earns on its financial products. Aetherum earns for the controls that enable them.

Credit Union / Bank
$2,500
Illustrative annual gross interest on a $25,000 loan at 10% APR, assuming the balance remains outstanding for a full year.
Aetherum
$937.50
Illustrative combined $750 funded-loan workflow fee plus a 0.75% funded-principal fee. Gross fee revenue before provider and operating costs.
Institution Contribution
$1,562.50
Illustrative gross interest less Aetherum variable charges—before institution funding costs, losses, licensing, custody, servicing, compliance and other expenses.
10 loans / mo
$212,500
25 loans / mo
$381,250
50 loans / mo
$662,500
100 loans / mo
$1,225,000

Illustrative annual Aetherum gross revenue per institution: 12 × monthly loan count × $937.50, plus a hypothetical $100K annual license. Not ARR, profit, actual sales, or a forecast. Excludes provider/network/servicing/compliance costs. Gross margin and repeatability require pilot validation.

10 · Rollout

A disciplined pilot path: prove one workflow, then expand the control plane.

1

Pilot CU

Agree one funded workflow, responsible owners, acceptance criteria, and a scoped paid pilot.

2

Control Validation

Demonstrate approved and denied paths, safe execution, confirmation, reconciliation, and retrievable evidence.

3

Commercial Conversion

Measure onboarding effort, service cost, control coverage, and willingness to renew.

4

Network Scale

Repeat only after a feasible production path, recurring contract, and acceptable delivery economics.

FINANCING ASK  ·  $1.0M capital objective at a proposed $16.0M valuation  ·  Final instrument and terms to be agreed  ·  Proceeds support first-pilot execution, compliance infrastructure, partner integration, and controlled credit-union expansion.
11 · Team & Advisors

Built by operators. Advised by the ecosystem.

John Bailey
Founder & CEO
20+ years in technical recruiting with placements at Google, Spotify, and Goldman Sachs. Previously co-founded Thorium Data. Building Aetherum full-time since early 2025 — product, business development, fundraising, and technical implementation.
Steve Salzer
Board Advisor · SVP, Velera
SVP at Velera since 2017. Chairs the Board of Managers at Ongoing Operations LLC. NACUSO Regulatory Advocacy Committee and CUNA Payments Subcommittee. JD, University of Chicago Law School.
Rahul Goel
Advisor · JP Morgan / Uber
Cybersecurity and financial-infrastructure expertise from senior roles at JP Morgan and Uber, including involvement with Meta's Novi digital wallet. Advises on platform security and institutional trust.
Saiprasad Raut
Advisor · Worldpay / Vanar
Head of Payments Infrastructure at Vanar, formerly Worldpay. Deep payments and blockchain-infrastructure expertise guiding settlement and digital-asset architecture.
10 · The Ask

The ask: fund the first governed credit-union digital-asset pilot.

Aetherum is raising $1.0M at a proposed $16.0M valuation, with final terms to be agreed, to convert its built product stack, portfolio of 28 filed patent applications, and credit-union positioning into a live institutional pilot and repeatable distribution model. Proceeds support pilot execution, compliance infrastructure, partner integration, and controlled credit-union expansion.

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