FTX collapse was a regulatory setback, says former investor

Former FTX US President Brett Harrison ‘never lost faith in the business’ while at now-shuttered exchange

It has been almost six months since FTX collapsed, and a lot has transpired since then, including executives being charged to industry businesses facing ripple effects from its demise.

At Consensus 2023, Anthony Scaramucci, former White House comms director and founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, which invested in the exchange and Brett Harrison, founder and CEO of Architect and former FTX US president, shared their experiences during FTX’s downfall and what life has been like since.

“It’s important to talk about it because if I can prevent one person from having that happen to them what happened to us then it’s worth it to me to talk about it,” Scaramucci said.

Harrison resigned from FTX in late September, weeks before it collapsed. In January, he launched his own company that makes trading infrastructure for large crypto investors. His startup raised $5 million and is backed by Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures and Scaramucci, among others.

SkyBridge Capital sold a 30% stake to FTX, weeks before the crypto exchange exploded. “We went from hero to zero in that transaction in about eight weeks,” Scaramucci said.

Neither Scaramucci nor Harrison have spoken to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in months. Harrison said the last time they talked was when he resigned from FTX US: He said he sent Bankman-Fried a text message telling him he was departing, to which Bankman-Fried replied with a red heart emoji.