On Tuesday, the US President of FTX, Brett Harrison announced that he would be stepping down from his position, while the crypto exchange is in the midst of a massive expansion program.
Making the announcement on Twitter, Harrison said that he would now take an advisory role in the firm and also added that he did not have any plans on leaving the crypto industry.
He said that he had a lot of gratitude for the experiences that he had had with FTX in the one and a half years that he served as president.
Background
The parent company of the FTX crypto exchange is based in the Bahamas and Harrison had come onboard back in May 2021.
He had previously been working at Citadel Securities and moved to FTX after two years. He had also spent about seven years earlier in his career working at Jane Street.
This is the same quantitative trading company where the chief executive and founder of FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried had first gotten his start in the world of finance.
On early Tuesday, Harrison’s name of the company’s website was listed as the chief executive of FTX US Derivatives.
But, a company representative clarified that this particular title belonged to Zach Dexter and since then, an update has been made to the website.
The future
On the Twitter thread, Harrison said that he couldn’t wait to share what he would be working on now and during this time, he would assist the CEO and the rest of the team with the transition.
He said that this was to ensure that FTX could end the year with the momentum it has maintained so far.
Earlier this year, the FTX crypto exchange had conducted a funding round that valued it at $32 billion. It is now talking with investors about raising around $1 billion at a flat valuation.
It is interested in expanding its operations in the United States, as evident from the announcement on Monday of its $1.4 billion acquisition of Voyager Digital’s assets after winning the bankruptcy auction.
Other moves
It is not just Voyager Digital that FTX has been interested in, as the company appears to be focusing on distressed crypto companies in the US and their assets in order to expand its market share during the crypto winter.
FTX had also signed a deal in July with BlockFi that included a line of credit for the crypto lender and a possible option of buying.
In August, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued a cease and desist order against the FTX crypto exchange, in which it was told to stop misleading people about its insurance status.
Harrison had responded to the warning on Twitter and said that they had not intended to mislead anyone and had not suggested that FTX US or its assets were under FDIC insurance.
The latest rumors also indicate that FTX is now interested in taking over the assets of Celsius Network, yet another bankrupt crypto lender.