Former FTX employees secured $35 million in funding, and this time they built a special exchange

Original Author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

On December 23, Architect Financial Technologies (hereinafter referred to as Architect), a fintech company founded by former FTX US President Brett Harrison, completed a $35 million Series A funding round, reaching a valuation of $187 million. This 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 completed a $12 million funding round, led by BlockTower and Tioga Capital.

In the current bear market of the crypto market, receiving favor from venture capital and securing tens of millions of dollars in funding is quite rare across the industry. What sets Architect apart?

Centralized Traditional Asset Perpetual Contract Exchange AX

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

Specifically, Architect's platform encompasses three main modules: brokerage services, trading technology, and post-trade solutions. Firstly, its brokerage business provides multi-asset brokerage services under U.S. regulation, supporting stocks, stock options, futures, and futures options. The platform is equipped with a full-featured API, SDKs in various programming languages (such as Rust, Python, JavaScript), paper trading simulations, execution algorithms, and customizable trading dashboards. Users can access major global markets, including CME Group, Cboe, Nasdaq, Coinbase Derivatives, and the New York Stock Exchange. This positions Architect as a one-stop portal for institutional investors to access both traditional and digital assets.

In September 2023, Architect received approval from the National Futures Association (NFA) to register as an independent introducing broker, allowing it to provide derivatives brokerage services.

Secondly, one of Architect's core products is AX—a perpetual futures exchange designed for traditional assets. Perpetual futures are popular in the crypto market, but under the regulatory environment of the U.S. SEC and CFTC, perpetual contracts for crypto assets face strict limitations. AX cleverly circumvents this pain point by focusing on perpetual contract trading for traditional financial asset classes such as forex, interest rates, and metals.

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

Overall, Architect's platform emphasizes flexibility in self-custody and custodial options, supporting multi-language APIs to facilitate 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, FINRA/SIPC member), ensuring all operations comply with U.S. financial regulatory standards.

From a business model perspective, Architect is not a crypto exchange but rather resembles a FinTech infrastructure provider. It does not issue tokens or rely on community governance but profits through trading fees and other means. This B2B-oriented strategy makes it more resilient during bear markets, avoiding the severe volatility of cryptocurrency prices.

According to the company's website, Architect's target customer base consists of institutional players, such as hedge funds and asset management groups, who need a reliable tech stack to bridge TradFi and DeFi. The integration of traditional assets and crypto has become a trend, with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins predicting that the entire U.S. financial market may migrate to blockchain technology within the next two years.

Impressive Resume, Left Before FTX Collapse

Architect founder Brett Harrison has extensive experience in fintech. His career trajectory 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. His career began at the top quantitative trading firm Jane Street, where from August 2010 to April 2021, he served as the head of trading systems technology, responsible for building high-performance trading infrastructure. This experience equipped him with core skills in low-latency systems, algorithmic execution, and risk management.

In May 2021, Harrison joined FTX US as president, responsible for expanding U.S. operations. At that time, FTX was at its peak, and he led the platform's technological upgrades and product innovations, including the development of derivative tools. However, in January 2022, just months before the FTX collapse, Harrison announced his departure. In an open letter, he stated that his departure was due to management differences with founder SBF, rather than financial issues. According to FTX's reports, the reasons included "lack of proper authorization, formal management structure, and key personnel."

This departure is seen as prescient, avoiding subsequent legal entanglements. During his time at FTX US, Harrison promoted the platform's institutional transformation, attracting a large number of traditional investors. Just months after leaving, Harrison founded Architect in January 2023 and completed a $5 million seed funding round the following month, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others.

Currently, its AX exchange has opened whitelist registration for both individual and institutional users.

In the macro environment at the end of 2025, Architect's rise comes at a timely moment, coinciding with a collective surge in gold, silver, and stock assets. Amidst the sluggish state of the entire crypto asset market, tapping into the most profitable and rapidly growing market, supported by compliance and technology, may be the right direction for doing the right thing.