Ex-FTX President Launches Perpetual Futures for Stocks

Brett Harrison, who previously served as president of FTX US, is making a strategic pivot back into financial technology with Architect Financial Technologies. The startup represents a significant evolution in Harrison’s career trajectory following his departure from the troubled cryptocurrency exchange. Rather than retreating from the financial innovation space, Harrison is leveraging his expertise to create what could become a transformative bridge between two previously separate financial ecosystems.

The Bermuda regulatory approval marks a crucial milestone for Architect Financial, providing the necessary legal framework to operate perpetual futures for traditional financial instruments. This jurisdiction choice reflects the growing trend of financial technology companies seeking regulatory environments that balance innovation with appropriate oversight. The approval enables the platform to offer sophisticated derivative products while maintaining compliance standards expected by institutional and retail traders alike.

Perpetual futures, commonly known as ‘perps’ in cryptocurrency circles, represent a sophisticated derivative instrument that eliminates the constraint of contract expiration dates. Unlike traditional futures contracts that have predetermined settlement dates, perpetual futures allow traders to maintain positions indefinitely, providing unprecedented flexibility in market exposure management. This feature has proven particularly attractive in volatile markets where timing contract expirations can be challenging.

The core innovation maintaining price stability in perpetual futures is the funding rate mechanism. This system requires periodic payments between long and short position holders, effectively creating a market-driven balancing mechanism. When perpetual futures prices deviate from their underlying spot market values, the funding rate adjusts to incentivize traders to take positions that bring the two prices back into alignment. This elegant solution has proven remarkably effective in cryptocurrency markets and now stands ready for application in traditional finance.

The funding rate operates as a continuous price discovery tool, with payments typically occurring every eight hours. This frequent recalibration ensures that perpetual futures prices remain closely tethered to their underlying assets, preventing the significant divergences that can occur in traditional futures markets approaching expiration. The mechanism represents a significant improvement over conventional futures pricing models, offering more consistent market efficiency.

The introduction of perpetual futures to stocks, currencies, and commodities represents a fundamental shift in how traditional assets can be traded. By bringing crypto’s high-leverage capabilities to established markets, Architect Financial is potentially democratizing sophisticated trading strategies previously accessible primarily to institutional investors. Retail traders may now access leverage levels and position flexibility that were once the exclusive domain of professional trading desks.

The platform’s support for diverse asset classes—including stocks, indexes, commodities, foreign currencies, and interest rates—creates unprecedented opportunities for cross-asset trading strategies. Traders can now employ the same perpetual futures mechanics across multiple market segments, enabling more sophisticated portfolio management and risk mitigation approaches. This unification of trading instruments could lead to increased market efficiency and liquidity across traditionally segmented financial markets.

However, the introduction of these high-leverage instruments also raises important questions about risk management and market stability. The same features that make perpetual futures attractive—unlimited position duration and significant leverage—also amplify potential losses. Market participants and regulators will need to carefully monitor how these instruments integrate into traditional finance ecosystems, particularly given the recent turbulence in cryptocurrency markets and the FTX association through Harrison’s background.