Former FTX US President raises $35 million in funding; this time they created a special exchange

Several months before the explosion, Brett Harrison, the former President of FTX US, founded the fintech company Architect, which completed a $35 million Series A funding round, valuing it at $187 million. The company is building the AX, a “traditional asset” perpetual contract exchange focused on forex, interest rates, metals, and other traditional financial assets.
(Background: CFTC Chair Michael Selig’s appointment: The FTX case taught me a lot, ensuring innovation is Made in America)
(Additional context: SBF: FTX didn’t really go bankrupt! Customers could have fully withdrawn their coins, but it was turned into a $130 billion disaster)

On December 23, Architect Financial Technologies (hereinafter referred to as Architect), founded by former FTX US President Brett Harrison, completed a $35 million Series A funding round, reaching a valuation of $187 million. The round was led by miax and Tioga Capital, with participation from ARK Invest, Galaxy Ventures, VanEck, Coinbase Ventures, CMT Digital, and others. As early as February 2024, Architect had completed a $12 million financing, led by BlockTower and Tioga Capital.

In the current bear market of the crypto industry, attracting venture capital and securing tens of millions of dollars in funding is quite rare. What makes Architect stand out?

Centralized traditional asset perpetual contract exchange AX

Founded in January 2023, during the lingering aftermath of the FTX collapse, Architect aims to bridge centralized and decentralized digital asset markets, helping financial institutions efficiently handle trading and post-trade processing of stocks, ETFs, futures, options, and other asset classes.

Specifically, Architect’s platform covers three main modules: brokerage services, trading technology, and post-trade solutions. First, its brokerage business (Brokerage) offers multi-asset brokerage services under U.S. regulation, supporting stocks, stock options, futures, and futures options. The platform is equipped with full-featured APIs, SDKs in multiple programming languages (such as Rust, Python, JavaScript), paper trading simulations, execution algorithms, and customizable trading dashboards. Users can connect to major global markets, including CME Group, Cboe, Nasdaq, Coinbase Derivatives, and NYSE. This makes Architect a one-stop portal for institutional investors to access both traditional and digital assets.

In September 2023, Architect was approved and registered as an introducing broker by the U.S. Futures Association (NFA), enabling it to provide derivatives brokerage services.

Second, one of Architect’s core products is AX—a perpetual futures exchange designed specifically for traditional assets. Perpetual futures are popular in the crypto market, but under U.S. SEC and CFTC regulation, perpetual contracts on crypto assets face strict restrictions. AX cleverly circumvents this issue by focusing on perpetual contract trading of traditional financial assets such as forex, interest rates, and metals.

Finally, the post-trade module offers advanced post-trade reconciliation, real-time P&L tracking, and detailed trading cost analysis (TCA) for digital assets and derivatives. This service is especially suitable for hedge funds, family offices, asset managers, and trading firms, helping them optimize operational efficiency.

Overall, Architect’s platform emphasizes flexibility with self-custody and custodial options, supports multi-language APIs, and facilitates developers in building custom execution algorithms, streaming market data, and position management tools. The company also has its own regulatory entities: Architect Financial Derivatives LLC (NFA registration number 0556853) and Architect Securities LLC (SEC-registered broker-dealer, FINRA/SIPC member), ensuring all operations comply with U.S. financial regulations.

From a business model perspective, Architect is not a crypto exchange but more like a FinTech infrastructure provider. It does not issue tokens or rely on community governance but profits through trading fees and related services. This B2B-oriented strategy makes it more resilient in a bear market, avoiding the extreme volatility of crypto prices.

According to the company’s website, Architect’s target clients are institutional players such as hedge funds and asset management groups, who need reliable technology stacks to bridge TradFi and DeFi. The integration of traditional assets and crypto has become a trend, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins predicts that within the next two years, the entire U.S. financial market may migrate to blockchain-supported platforms.

Impressive resume, left before FTX collapsed

Founder Brett Harrison has extensive experience in fintech. His career path is exemplary: from traditional high-frequency trading to crypto leadership, and then to independent entrepreneurship.

Harrison graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science. He started his career at top quantitative trading firm Jane Street, serving from August 2010 to April 2021 as Head of Trading Systems Technology, responsible for building high-performance trading infrastructure. This experience gave him core skills in low-latency systems, algorithm execution, and risk management.

In May 2021, Harrison joined FTX US as President, overseeing the expansion of the U.S. business. At that time, FTX was at its peak, and he led platform upgrades and product innovations, including the development of derivatives tools. However, in January 2022, months before FTX’s collapse, Harrison announced his departure. In a public letter, he stated that his resignation was due to management disagreements with founder SBF, not financial issues. According to FTX reports, the reasons included “lack of proper authorization, formal management structure, and key personnel.”

This departure was seen as foresight, avoiding subsequent legal entanglements. During his time at FTX US, Harrison promoted the platform’s institutional transformation, attracting many traditional investors. Just a few months after leaving, he founded Architect in January 2023, and the following month completed a $5 million seed round, with Coinbase Ventures among the investors.

Currently, its AX exchange is open for whitelist registration to both individual and institutional users.

In the macro environment of late 2025, Architect’s rise comes at the right time, as gold, silver, and stock assets are collectively soaring. In a period when the entire crypto market is sluggish, exploring the most profitable and fastest-growing markets, supported by compliance and technology, might be the right direction and the right thing to do.