Former FTX US Head Launches New Crypto Software
According to Bloomberg, the former CEO of FTX US is creating a new bitcoin software firm and has already secured $5 million from different investors. Coinbase Ventures and Circle Ventures have provided funding for a new software company that will be founded by Brett Harrison, who formerly held the position of president of FTX US from May 2021 to September 2022.
Shari Glazer of Kalos Labs and Anthony Scaramucci were two of the individuals that joined in the seed round with SALT Fund, Motivate VC, P2P Validator, and Third Kind Venture Capital.
His new company, which will be known as Architect, will provide trading software for huge institutions who are interested in accessing the cryptocurrency markets.
He expressed to Bloomberg his optimism that "people would be able to recover their trust back in trading in this business" with the release of Architect.
Harrison left FTX US months before the company collapsed under the shoddy guidance of Sam Bankman-Fried, who headed the global FTX cryptocurrency exchange and several other companies under its purview. Harrison left FTX US because he was unhappy with the direction the company was being led in by Bankman-Fried.
In November, FTX US was one of around 130 firms that were a part of the FTX Group that filed for bankruptcy.
1/49 A lot of people have inquired about my tenure at FTX US and the reasons for my departure at the time that I did.
As I said earlier in the week, I'm excited to start sharing my experiences as well as my point of view with the public.
— Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) The 14th of January, 2023 On January 14, Harrison detailed the reasons for his departure from the cryptocurrency exchange in a long discussion on Twitter.
He claimed that six months into his tenure, "cracks began to form" in his relationship with Bankman-Fried, and that the former CEO of FTX displayed "total insecurity and intransigence" whenever he was confronted with conflict. He stated that this behaviour occurred whenever he was put in a position of authority.
Among other alleged transgressions, Bankman-Fried is facing eight criminal accusations and may spend as much as 115 years in jail for allegedly scamming investors and breaking regulations pertaining to political funding.
On January 5, he entered a plea of not guilty to all of the charges.
As the bear market continued to wreak havoc on the cryptocurrency industry in the second half of 2022, venture capital funding started to dry up.
As cryptocurrency markets adjust to the new reality, the failure of FTX and the subsequent ripple effects it caused seem to have added further strain to the process of raising cash.
According to Bloomberg, Harrison's first goal for Architect was to fund anywhere from $5 million to $10 million at a value of $100 million.