Former FTX President Launches New Crypto Venture, Raises $5 Million From Leading Investors

Less than a week ago, Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX US, published a 49-part Twitter thread describing his side of the story when he worked for the disgraced co-founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). On Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, Harrison revealed that his new firm, Architect, has raised $5 million from investors such as Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and SALT Fund.

Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX who left the company in Sept. 2022, has started a new venture aimed at attracting institutions to the world of decentralized finance (defi). “It’s a software company aimed at building institutional-grade infrastructure to connect various crypto venues across decentralized and centralized exchanges,” Harrison told Techcrunch reporter Jacquelyn Melinek on Friday.

Harrison’s new venture and fresh capital raise follow the former president of FTX US recounting how he left the company and his relationship with its co-founder, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Harrison detailed that his relationship with SBF and the FTX CEO’s deputies “had reached a point of total deterioration.” In the 49-part Twitter thread, Harrison mentioned a new crypto startup he was working on. Harrison tweeted about the capital raise on Friday and said, “I’m very happy to announce the founding of [Architect] and the closing of our [$5 million] seed round.”

Harrison added:

Architect will build institutional-grade trading technology that streamlines crypto market structure, making it easier and safer for firms and large traders to access decentralized protocols and centralized exchanges alike. Architect’s products will embody our commitment to security, self-custody, extensibility, and open source design.

In addition to Circle Ventures and Coinbase Ventures, Architect received a capital injection from Motivate Venture Capital, SALT Fund, SV Angel, P2P Validator, Third King Venture Capital, Shari Glazer, and Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of Skybridge Capital. Harrison’s Architect fundraising also follows a recent interview with FTX’s new CEO, John J. Ray III, who told The Wall Street Journal that FTX was exploring the possibility of restarting the now-defunct crypto exchange.

What are your thoughts on Brett Harrison’s new defi venture Architect? Share your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.