Former FTX US President Brett Harrison says he plans to launch a perpetual stock trading platform, or “perps” as he describes them. Harrison’s software startup, Architect Financial Technologies, plans to offer access to foreign currencies, interest rates, single stocks, stock indexes, metals, energy, and other commodities. The former FTX president says the perpetual futures contract platform already received approval to operate its new venue out of a regulated entity with the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
“We have a long roadmap for launching perpetuals on emerging asset classes, like those that power the AI economy, including rare earth metals, renewable energy and data center compute costs,” Harrison said in an interview this week. He went on to explain the goal of his firm, adding more of these so-called perps.
Perpetual stock trading contracts let traders make constant, leveraged bets on prices without ever taking delivery of the tokens. US regulators have yet to sign off on perpetuals, keeping all activity tied to crypto or traditional assets offshore. However, US President Donald Trump’s push to deregulate crypto has sparked optimism that the asset class will soon be approved.
“It’s the perfect time to bring this type of innovation to traditional assets,” Harrison said. His startup Architect’s perpetual exchange, AX, will operate around the clock, giving investors global access to the contracts at all times, he added. Furthermore, the firm plans to take both regular fiat currency as well as US dollar-based stablecoins as collateral so it can transact even when the traditional wire system is closed.
Brett Harrison’s Architect has already raised $17 million from investors, including Coinbase Ventures and Circle Ventures.