Former FTX US president Brett Harrison returns with AX, a Bermuda-regulated exchange offering perpetual contracts on forex, stocks, and commodities with crypto-like efficiency.
Brett Harrison has returned to the crypto and trading space with the launch of AX on Oct. 29, a new exchange focused on perpetual futures for non-crypto assets. This move comes three years after the FTX collapse, where Harrison served as US president but resigned before the scandal unfolded.
AX, by Architect Financial Technologies, offers perpetual contracts on foreign currencies, single stocks, ETFs, interest rates, metals, and energy. Based in Bermuda and regulated under the Monetary Authority’s Investment Business and Digital Asset Business Acts, the platform emphasizes security and transparency. It uses technology from Connamara Technologies for matching and allows portfolio margining across asset classes.
Notably, the platform combines “the capital efficiency and operational simplicity of crypto perps,” said Harrison in a thread on X. He added that AX supports USD and stablecoin collaterals, together with other functionalities.
The @Architect_fi team and I are excited to announce the launch of AX, the world’s first centralized and regulated exchange for perpetual futures on traditional assets: FX, single stocks, ETFs, stock indexes, interest rates, metals, energy, and more. pic.twitter.com/W5hmihDubc
— Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) October 29, 2025
According to Architect’s press release, AX is open to institutions such as hedge funds and market makers, with a waitlist for individual traders. Harrison highlighted the year-long collaboration with regulators and partners to build this.
Based on a post from Colin Wu, Architect is also raising Series A funding from investors like Coinbase Ventures and Circle Ventures.
Former FTX US President Brett Harrison plans to build a new trading hub focused on perpetual contracts (perps) for stocks and forex. The initiative aims to bring traditional capital market trading into a trading structure similar to crypto perpetual contracts. Architect is…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 29, 2025
This launch follows other developments in trading platforms like the rise of Hyperliquid and Aster—two supposedly decentralized exchanges focused on perpetuals (perps), similarly to AX. As Coinspeaker reported earlier in October, Galaxy launched a crypto trading platform to take on Robinhood, for example.
Brett Harrison’s History With FTX
FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, after a liquidity crisis triggered by reports of misused customer funds tied to Alameda Research. Withdrawals surged, Binance briefly considered acquisition but withdrew, leading to Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest in December 2022 and 25-year sentence in March 2024. Harrison left FTX US in September 2022, citing internal disputes, and denied any fraud involvement, according to a CoinDesk report.
Coinspeaker has a complete report on what the FTX exchange is and what happened in one of the largest black swan events in crypto to date.
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