FTX US President Steps Down Joining a Growing List of Departing Crypto Leaders

Brett Harrison, the president of FTX US, has joined a growing list of crypto leaders who are leaving their executive roles in the industry. 

Brett announced his resignation from the role on the micro-blogging platform Twitter, stating that he expects to transfer his responsibilities and move into an advisory role at the company over the next few months.  

He highlighted that in his one-and-half year at FTX US, he had helped grow the exchange from three-multi-tasking to a team of over 100; helped the exchange become a multi-business enterprise; written a retail and equity trading platform and built a U.S. brokerage; as well as, worked with regulators, and spearheaded mergers and acquisitions for FTX. 

“I don’t doubt my experiences in this role will be among the most cherished of my career. Most of all I’m grateful to SBF [FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried] for the opportunity and trust he gave me during this period of FTX’s history. I’m glad to have his friendship and support in this decision,” he wrote. 

Brett added that he intends to remain in the crypto industry to help solve the problem of technological barriers to participation in the crypto market. This is especially important as larger market participants come onboard and the market becomes increasingly fragmented and technologically complex. 

Meanwhile, his resignation came a month after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) a tweet he made in July contained misleading claims that funds held at and stocks purchased through FTX were FDIC insured. 

Reuters reported at the time that the bank regulator ordered the exchange to halt the ‘false and misleading claims” and remove any misleading language from its social media accounts and websites. FTX has carried out the directive, with SBF apologizing to anyone who misinterpreted the president’s statement. 

Crypto industry seeing a lot of high-profile resignations recently

Brett’s resignation from FTX is only the latest high-profile case of a crypto executive stepping down. Previous executives that have resigned or changed their designations include Jesse Powell of Kraken, Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, Alex Mashinksy of Celcius, Michael Moro of Genesis, and Sam Trabucco of Alameda Research.  

In the case of Michael Saylor, his resignation was to facilitate a move to the role of chairman to enable him to focus on increasing the Bitcoin holdings of the company. Meanwhile, Mashinksy left Celcius amid bankruptcy proceedings at the crypto lender. 

Notably, most of these resignations came to head as turmoil in the crypto market has led to stress and even the collapse of some high-profile firms.