FTX.US appoints its first President in push to US business

Karthik Subramanian

West Realm Shires Services (FTX.US) has announced that it has appointed Brett Harrison as its President.

He will be the first President of FTX.US as it seeks to become the leading US-regulated cryptocurrency exchange. He has extensive experience in developing trading financial technology and FTX.US would be hoping that he can bring in all his experience to continue to innovate at the company and also help in its growth in the US.

FTX has been making rapid strides as a cryptocurrency exchange over the last several months and its trading volumes have been booming during this period. With the bitcoin prices shooting up over the same period and the buzz around the crypto domain also increasing, it has helped FTX to grow its user base manifold and quickly become one of the most sought-after crypto exchanges as far as the traders and investors are concerned.

Sam Bankman-Fried, Co-Founder and CEO of FTX.US, commented, “When we were at Jane Street, Brett was always the best developer to call when you absolutely had to get something online.  He combined great technical skills (way better than mine!) with a clear view of the business needs and priorities.  And most importantly, he’s just a great guy.  I’m really excited to work with him to help massively scale out FTX.US.”

FTX has always been striving to build the technology in its platform as it seeks to handle surging trade volumes and it believes that have a person with strong technology skills at the helm would help it in this regard. Prior to joining FTX.US, Mr. Harrison was the Head of ETF Technology and then subsequently served as the Head of Semi-Systematic Technology.

Mr. Harrison concluded, “Working with Sam at Jane Street was an incredibly rewarding experience, and I’m beyond excited to have the opportunity to do it again. I’ve been blown away by everything he and his teams have built over the last couple of years. I’m honoured to join them at this pivotal moment and help drive FTX.US’s rapid growth.”

FTX.US has set its goal to become the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the US in terms of volume over the next 2 years and it faces a big challenge from competitors like coinbase, bitmex and binance as well. At the same time, the regulators in the US are also watching the crypto domain like a hawk and it remains to be seen how much regulation is going to be brought in over the coming years and how the various exchanges are going to deal with it.

Already, the news is that Binance US is going to be investigated for money laundering and tax evasion and as the regulatory oversight on the exchanges increases, the exchanges have to be ready to adapt and grow.

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