Brett Harrison, the president of FTX US, made the announcement on Sept. 27 that he would be leaving his position and taking on an advisory role at the United States-based crypto exchange.
Harrison, who assumed the position last year, is leaving at a time when the cryptocurrency exchange is viewed as the 'white knight' of the troubled industry because it buys assets, technologies, and clients from businesses at low prices in the shaky digital assets sector.
Harrison's move was made public a month after one of his deleted tweets upset the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The American regulator said that the tweet from July made false claims about the FDIC insurance of the assets maintained at FTX and the equities purchased through it. As a result, the company was ordered to erase any false statements from its websites and social media accounts.
In response, FTX's chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried reiterated that the company is not FDIC-insured and expressed regret if any of his earlier remarks were misunderstood.
Harrison is grateful for the opportunity at the exchange and described it as the "most cherished" professional experience. He said he will keep working in the crypto industry. The next thing he wants to do is "removing technological barriers to full participation in and maturation of global crypto markets, both centralized and decentralized."
After the failure of two significant tokens, terraUSD and luna, the cryptocurrency industry was hit by a general sell-off. A number of businesses, including the hedge fund Three Arrows and the cryptocurrency lenders Celsius and Voyager Digital, declared bankruptcy, and Coinbase, BlockFi, and Crypto.com fired hundreds of workers.
"This industry is at a number of crossroads. The one that matters most to me, as a financial technologist, is the intersection of the arrival of larger market participants, and the increasing fragmentation and technological complexity of the market's landscape," Harrison wrote on Twitter, saying he would stay in the business.
Harrison's LinkedIn page states that he has been the president of FTX.US since May 2021. Prior to that, he spent roughly two years working for market maker Citadel Securities, and seven and a half years working for investment firm Jane Street as the head of trading systems technology.
Harrison helped FTX US develop into one of the top three cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States based on trading volume. He also contributed to the company's purchase of the derivatives exchange LedgerX. Harrison oversaw the $8 billion valuation of FTX US.
