FTX.US President Brett Harrison Says Crypto Winter Fading Away As Institutional Demand Picks Up

The president of crypto exchange FTX’s US arm says buzzing new activity in the industry is hinting that crypto spring is nigh.

In a new interview with Bloomberg Technology, FTX.US president Brett Harrison was asked what he thought of the recent deal between Coinbase and BlackRock.

“It does seem to me that winter is starting to thaw… Prices are obviously rising, and what we are actually seeing here [is] a lot of these forced liquidations in the market, they’re starting to come to an end. No more news about different exchanges or lending platforms going under, Voyager is returning funds, large undeployed venture capital is starting to be deployed again…

And then, of course, this news coming out with Coinbase and with BlackRock showing that the institutional demand to be able to trade crypto through some of the more traditional, huge players in the market is not slowed down. In fact, as the saying goes, this is the time to build. People are obviously building now. And as we start to come out of this winter, and people are trading again, the tools and the capital will be in place to do so.”

When asked to speculate on what mistakes led to Coinbase and Robinhood recently laying off large percentages of their workforce, the FTX.US president says,

“Looking across the growth tech sector, there are so many companies talking about either layoffs or hiring freezes. Everything from, yes, Coinbase and Robinhood, but also Google and Microsoft and Tesla…

I think there’s a real lesson learned here, which is that these growth companies which have typically operated under the model that headcount growth is a sign of company growth are realizing that actually sometimes headcount growth can get in the way of company growth.”