Brett Harrison, who once led FTX's U.S. operations, has embarked on a new entrepreneurial chapter. His company, Architect Financial Technologies, recently completed a $35 million funding round to transfer the mature architectural concepts of encryption trading to the TradFi derivation market.

In simple terms, Harrison does not want to repeat the purely encryption exchange model. Architect's ambition is greater – to integrate multiple asset classes, directly addressing the needs of institutional traders. The company was established after the FTX collapse in 2022, specializing in derivation and high-end trading infrastructure, targeting those institutional players with a strong demand for professional tools and cross-market liquidity.

The early groundwork was quite solid. By 2024, Architect had already raised $12 million, backed by heavyweight investment institutions like Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and SALT Fund. That round of financing was mainly used to build the technical framework, optimize product experience, and tackle the unavoidable regulatory compliance work—laying a foundation for future scaling. The arrival of this new financing means the platform is one step closer to a formal launch.