Brett Harrison Secures $35M Boost for Cutting-Edge Institutional Derivatives Platform

Crypto Derivatives Firm Secures $35 Million in Funding, Signaling Growing Industry Confidence

Brett Harrison, the former president of the now-defunct FTX US exchange, has successfully closed a $35 million funding round for his new derivatives venture, Architect Financial Technologies. The latest injection of capital indicates renewed investor confidence in the sector and a sustained appetite for innovative derivatives infrastructure within the crypto industry.

According to reports, Harrison’s startup is leveraging the funds to develop an institutional trading platform offering a comprehensive suite of products, including derivatives, equities, futures, and digital assets. Key institutional players such as Miax, Tioga Capital, ARK Investment, Galaxy, and VanEck participated in the round. This follows a previous raise of $12 million in 2024, which was backed by notable investors like Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and SALT Fund.

Architect’s recent regulatory approval in Bermuda to offer perpetual futures contracts tied to traditional assets such as stocks, commodities, and foreign currencies highlights its strategic focus on mainstream integration. Perpetual futures, or “perps,” originally gained popularity through platforms like BitMEX and FTX before the collapse of the latter in late 2022. Architect’s foray into this market signals a continued push toward sophisticated, institutional-grade trading products in crypto.

The platform is expressly aimed at professional and institutional traders, offering robust features such as algorithmic trading, advanced risk management tools, and multi-asset derivatives support. The company also has plans for expansion beyond Bermuda to other key markets, including Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, underscoring the global potential of crypto derivatives trading.

The Rising Dominance of Derivatives in Financial Markets

Derivatives represent the largest segment of global financial markets, with outstanding contracts valued in the hundreds of trillions of dollars—far exceeding the world’s economic output. As noted by S&P Global, the derivatives landscape is constantly evolving, yet liquidity remains a persistent challenge across many asset classes. Market participants increasingly favor products with deep liquidity and tight bid-ask spreads, fostering ongoing innovation in index-based and alternative solutions.

Within the cryptocurrency sphere, derivatives have become the dominant trading instruments, constituting approximately 75% to 80% of total trading volume across major exchanges. This central role in liquidity and price discovery, however, also amplifies volatility, as demonstrated during the historic liquidation event in crypto markets on October 10, which erased $19 billion in value within a single day.

Such developments reflect the importance of derivatives in shaping crypto market dynamics and the growing institutional interest in sophisticated trading vehicles.