Brett Harrison, former president of FTX.US, has raised USD 5 million for Architect, a new crypto startup that will build trading software targeted at large investors and institutions, according to a Bloomberg report.
It has been almost four months since Brett Harrison stepped down as president of FTX.US, the US arm of the now bankrupt crypto exchange. Prior to FTX, Harrison worked at traditional financial institutions such as Citadel Securities and Jane Street. He has also spent approximately 11 years developing algorithmic trading software for the global equity and derivatives markets.
The startup has raised capital in a pre-production funding round from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, SV Angel, SALT Fund, P2P Validator, Third King Venture Capital and Motivate Venture Capital. Angel investors Sheri Glazer, CEO of Kalos Labs, and Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director and founder of SkyBridge Capital, are also among his investors.
The Architect software will make it easier for investors to use both decentralized and centralized exchanges with the goal of helping people regain confidence in trading in the industry. The product is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year, and Harrison expects Architect to be integrated into the Coinbase and Circle investor platforms.
The startup could satisfy the current market demand among major players for more unified and accessible platforms to connect their crypto services instead of opening multiple tabs and servers. The startup is launching a pre-product, so its flagship service needs to be seamless and provide a simpler user experience to outperform other crypto services.