FTX USA President Says Crypto Winter ‘Starting to Thaw’

by Arthur · August 13, 2022

In a recent interview, Brett Harrison, who is the president of FTX.US, explained why he believes that the crypto winter may soon be over.

During an interview with Emily Chang, anchor of the daily show “Bloomberg Technology,” Harrison was asked about a recent deal between Coinbase and BlackRock, which is the world’s top asset management firm by total AUM.

On August 4, Coinbase’s Brett Tejpaul (who is Head of Coinbase Institutional) and Greg Tusar (who is Head of Institutional Product) published a blog post, in which they stated that “Coinbase and BlackRock will create new access points for institutional crypto adoption by connecting Coinbase Prime and Aladdin .”

The blog post went on to say that “Coinbase is partnering with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to provide institutional clients of Aladdin®, BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform, direct access to crypto, starting with bitcoin, through connectivity with Coinbase Prime.” Apparently, Coinbase Prime will “provide crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage and reporting capabilities to Aladdin’s institutional customer base who are also customers of Coinbase.”

Joseph Chalom, Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock, had this to say:

“Our institutional clients are increasingly interested in gaining exposure to digital asset markets and are focused on how to effectively manage the operational lifecycle of these assets. This connection with Aladdin will allow clients to manage their bitcoin exposures directly within their existing portfolio management and trade flow for a whole portfolio view of risk across asset classes.“

According to a report published by The Daily Hodl, the FTX.US president claimed that the deal was an indication that the crypto winter was “starting to thaw”, noting the massive effect of institutional demand for crypto assets. He argued that now was “the time to build,” to have the tools and capital in place for when investors start trading heavily in crypto again.

Harrison also pointed to the rising prices of crypto assets across the market and the end of forced liquidations and crypto companies going under. According to him, the combination of rising prices and positive sentiment seems to be contributing to the narrative that the crypto winter is coming to an end.

Harrison was also asked to comment on the layoffs announced by rival exchanges Coinbase and Robinhood, as well as traditional tech giants such as Google and Microsoft, and he replied:

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