Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX.US, has introduced a new crypto venture. Even though he has ties to the now-defunct crypto exchange, key players have already offered their support.
His new project is named Architect and it has already managed to raise funds of about $5 million. Anthony Scaramucci, the former press secretary for the White House under Donald Trump, is one of the backers.
Others include Circle Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.
The project
A software firm, Architect is focused on developing trading infrastructure for Web3. The products of the company will mostly be aimed at the B2B market, but some high-volume traders may also take advantage.
According to Harrison, the primary clients of the company will be able to use Architect for trading seamlessly and quickly across different crypto platforms via a single interface.
For instance, he suggested that a single API may be created by Architect for trading across Uniswap and Coinbase.
He added that while Architect would be working on creating products for big-name clients in the industry, its main priorities would also include ensuring safety and trust.
Harrison said that they wanted to design Architect in a way that clients would be able to engage in trading without relying on them for safeguarding or storing their private information.
Therefore, he said that their goal would be to develop a decentralized solution when it comes to design.
Crypto venture capital
According to Harrison, since the implosion of the Terra ecosystem last year in May, the world of crypto venture capital is now coming back on track.
He said that the venture capital space had seen a huge bubble, but now investors were being more thorough in terms of investigating and vetting prospective targets.
He added that this would actually benefit private markets. He did say that Architect had found it difficult to raise capital because of the latest bubble and then the downfall of FTX.
However, he believes that the project has managed to raise its seed funding because he has long-term connections with investors.
He said that a lot of people who had invested had worked with him and had also known him for a while.
The concerns
While Architect might be focusing on the future of Web3, people took to Twitter to express their concerns about Harrison’s history, given his position at FTX.US.
A 50-part Twitter thread had been published by Harrison a week ago in which he had talked about his departure from the company last year in September.
He stated that FTX’s management practices had resulted in disputes between him and Sam Bankman-Fried and their relationship had deteriorated to an extent that he decided to walk away.
While FTX filed for bankruptcy just two months after he left, Harrison said that he had made his decision to leave a lot earlier.
As far as bringing back FTX is concerned, he said that the possibility was interesting because they could clean it up with good management, which would help people in getting back their money.
