Harrison vs. Leverage

Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX US, has announced the launch of his new trading platform, Architect. The exchange will allow trading in futures on stocks, currencies, and metals — but notably, not cryptocurrencies.

Harrison believes that high-leverage trading on volatile assets like cryptocurrencies is irresponsible. According to him, such practices often lead to rapid losses and make exchanges resemble casinos more than financial institutions.

On Architect, the maximum leverage will be 25x, and only for relatively stable instruments such as major currency pairs. For riskier assets — for instance, Tesla shares — the limit will drop to 8x.

By comparison, in the crypto market, 100x leverage has become a common standard. Data from DeFiLlama shows that the monthly trading volume of perpetual crypto contracts reaches around $1.3 trillion. Much of this trading happens on decentralized exchanges, which typically require no identity verification or risk-knowledge assessments.

Harrison warns that the lack of safeguards and proper limits can lead to “liquidation cascades” — massive waves of position closures that trigger sharp market crashes. In his view, exchanges should prioritize safety and investor protection over quick profits from forced liquidations.