Bloomberg reports that former CEO of FTXUS, Brett Harrison, is creating a new bitcoin software company and has received $5 million from investors. Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Circle Ventures contributed funding to a new software company. Brett Harrison will be the founder of the company. He was previously president of FTX US from September 2022 through May 2021.
Kalos Labs’ Shari Glazer and Anthony Scaramucci joined the seed round along with SALT Fund and Motivate VC, P2P Validator and Third Kind Venture Capital.
His new company, Architect, will offer trading software to large institutions that are interested in the cryptocurrency markets.
Bloomberg was his optimistic response to the release Architect.
Harrison left FTX US just months before the company crashed under the poor leadership of Sam Bankman Fried, who was responsible for the global FTX cryptocurrency exchange as well as several other companies that fell under his control. Harrison quit FTX US after he wasn’t satisfied with the direction Bankman-Fried was leading the company.
FTX US was among the 130 companies that filed for bankruptcy in November.
1/49 Many people have asked about my tenure at FTX US, and why I left.
As I mentioned earlier, I am excited to share my experiences and my points 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.
Six months into his tenure, he stated that cracks started to form in his relationship with Bankman Fried and that the former CEO, FTX, displayed “total insecurity” and “intransigence” whenever he faced conflict. This behavior was evident whenever he was in a position to be in charge.
Bankman-Fried faces eight criminal charges and could spend up to 115 years in prison for allegedly swindling investors and violating regulations pertaining the political funding.
He entered a plea to not guilty on January 5th.
Venture capital funding dried up as the bear markets continued to devastate the cryptocurrency industry in 2022’s second half.
The new reality is changing rapidly in cryptocurrency markets. However, the failure to pay FTX and its ripple effects seem to have put additional strain on the process of raising money.
Bloomberg claims that Harrison’s first goal as an Architect was to raise $5 million to $10million to help him reach his $100 million goal.
