FTX's president to step down, join advisory role

Brett Harrison, the president of FTX's U.S. subsidiary FTX U.S., announced Wednesday that he will step down from his position.

Harrison stated on Twitter that FTX ends 2022 with all its characteristic momentum over the next few months and that I will be moving into an advisory role over the next few months. Harrison plans to stay in the industry to help improve the market structure, but did not give any specifics about what's going to happen next.

This industry is at a crossroads. As a financial technologist, the intersection of the arrival of larger market participants, and the increasing fragmentation and technological complexity of the market's landscape is what matters most to me, Harrison said.

According to the Nomics industry, FTX is the fifth-largest criptocurrency exchange by trading volume year to date.

Sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that bankruptcoin Voyager accepted FTX U.S. $1.4 billion bid for its assets after a two-week long auction process involving other industry players such as major exchange Binance and asset manager Wave Financial.

The FTX U.S. exchange's U.S. arm, which follows the jurisdiction's regulatory standards for cripto exchanges, is the 19th largest exchange by volume for the same period.

If approved by creditors, FTX U.S. s purchase of Voyager assets could net the exchange more retail trading volume from U.S. based Voyager customers.

This illustration photo shows a smart phone screen with the logo of FTX, the cripto exchange platform, with a screen showing the FTX website in the background in Arlington, Virginia on February 10, 2022. Sam Bankman- Fried donned a suit and tie this week, abandoning his preferred hoodie and dark T-shirt for a hearing before the US Senators. The 29 year-old multi-billionaire was summoned by the lawmakers on Wednesday to discuss the regulation of digital assets in his capacity as co-founder and CEO of the FTX Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY AFP via Getty Images In February, FTX U.S. entered the retail equities broker trading business by offering stock trading, which isn't accounted for in the volume tracking.

The firm has a number of acquisitions, including a $680 million purchase of financially distressed criptocurrency lender BlockFi earlier this summer, as well as Embed and LedgerX.

Harrison said that technological frictions that will occur at the intersection and how effectively they are reduced will be a critical factor in the future growth and stability of criptocurrencies, as they relate to their capitalization, their resilience, and utility.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering the criptocurrency and stock markets.