ormer FTX US President Brett Harrison has started a new crypto trading software company, Architect. He hoped to raise funds at a valuation of $100 million, but raised only $5 at a valuation of $60 million. He blamed the crypto winter and his association with Sam Bankman-Fried‘s FTX for receiving less funding. Brett Harrison reveals how SBF’s inner circle handled a few operations at FTX US without communicating with him.
Former FTX President Harrison Denies Part in Crisis
Brett Harrison left the company in September 2022, two months before the collapse of FTX. He had no clue that Sam Bankman-Fried and his inner circle were misappropriating customer funds. In fact, Harrison said he is also a victim and may never get back the money he invested with the exchange.
The crypto trading software company by Brett Harrison aims to help big Wall Street firms to trade crypto. So far, he has managed to raise $5 million from investors including Coinbase Ventures and Circle Ventures, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, SV Angel, Third Kind Venture Capital, and Motivate Venture Capital, among others. However, he is happy with what he has raised due to crypto winter, reported Bloomberg on February 2.
“It’s been a pretty chilly crypto winter for everyone and seeing a raise get done — and seeing excitement from larger well-known crypto investors — has given people hope.”
Several venture capitalists were not interested due to the risks of being associated with a former FTX executive.
SBF and Inner Circle Interfere With US Operations
Commenting on aiding prosecutors in the fraud case against SBF, Harrison asserts he will be happy to help and cooperate with the investigation. However, he wasn’t even involved in key deals made by FTX US, including when the company extended a $400 million credit line to crypto lender BlockFi.
“There were a number of different acquisitions or deals in which I would find out about them from the news, rather than find out from them internally and that was very frustrating.”
Brett Harrison said he tried separating FTX and FTX US teams, as well as bank accounts and crypto wallets, and customer accounts from the company’s operating accounts. However, SBF and his inner circle interfered with FTX US operations.
Main content of the article:
Brett Harrison, former President of FTX US, has started a new crypto trading software company, Architect. Despite aiming to raise funds at a valuation of $100 million, he only managed to raise $5 million from investors, including Coinbase Ventures and Circle Ventures, at a valuation of $60 million. He blames the crypto winter and his association with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX for the lack of funding. Harrison also reveals how SBF’s inner circle interfered with FTX US operations without communicating with him. Despite the setback, he is happy with the results due to the current crypto winter and hopes it will give others hope. He is also willing to help the investigation into SBF’s fraud.
