Nick Van Eck

Nick van Eck is CEO and Co-Founder of Agora, a stablecoin company he established in October 2023. Agora issues the AUSD stablecoin and is pursuing a national trust bank charter with the OCC, with van Eck targeting approval by year-end. The charter is intended to allow Agora to issue stablecoins directly under federal oversight and, in van Eck's stated view, eliminate fees in fiat-to-crypto on/off ramps. The company plans to expand beyond stablecoin issuance into custody, compliance, and infrastructure services. Van Eck has publicly commented on the Genius Act, describing it as one of the most significant pieces of banking legislation in U.S. history and characterising bank opposition to the bill as driven by concern over deposit flight should stablecoin issuers pass yield through to users.

Prior to founding Agora, van Eck was a Partner at General Catalyst from September 2019 to October 2023, where he focused on early-stage investments in decentralized finance and the broader cryptocurrency sector. He also operates as an angel investor, writing individual checks between $5,000 and $25,000 into Web3 projects including Lens Protocol, Ostium, and Tristero. Earlier in his career he held analytical roles at JMI Equity, Cambridge Associates, and Horizon Kinetics. Van Eck is the son of VanEck CEO Jan van Eck and the grandson of the firm's founder. He attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Economics.