Former FTX US president Brett Harrison is launching a new venture that brings one of the most popular Crypto – and controversial – trading instruments to traditional finance.
His startup, Architect Financial Technologies, received approval in Bermuda to offer Perpetual futures contract Tied to traditional assets such as stocks, indexes, commodities, foreign currencies and interest rates, Bloomberg reported Wednesday
Perpetual futures, or “perps,” let traders take long or short positions without contract expiration. To keep prices aligned with spot markets, exchanges use a funding rate mechanism, a periodic payment between long and short positions that balances demand.
Originally popularized by Bitmex and later by FTX, Perps have helped drive the explosive growth of crypto – monthly trading volume has grown to $6.4 trillion in 2025 from $35 billion in 2018.
While FTX Global offers crypto perps leverage up to 100 times, FTX US, where Harrison served as president, operates as a separate, regulated entity and does not offer such products.
However, Both exchanges collapsed In November 2022 following a severe liquidity crisis exposed massive deficiencies and ultimately led to FTX’s bankruptcy filing.
Related: Kraken doubles down on US futures with $100m ‘small’ acquisition
High risk, high scrutiny
Despite their success, perps are considered high risk derivativesdrawing scrutiny from analysts and regulators alike. Coincall executive Fenni Kang warned in May that for inexperienced traders, “Perps can be a ticking time bomb.”
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Kang warned that many traders overuse margin, which means that even small market moves can trigger devastating liquidations.
Perpetual futures have also drawn regulatory scrutiny. In 2023, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) warned of inadequate safeguards and settlement practices.
However, Perpetuals remain a cornerstone of crypto trading, dominated by platforms such as Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget.
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