SAN FRANCISCO: As Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, awaits ruling in an ongoing trial, a group of former FTX executives, including one who served as a key witness against Bankman-Fried, are reportedly plan to launch a new cryptocurrency exchange.
FTX former general counsel Can Sun and other former company executives aim to solve the problems that doomed their previous employer with the new cryptocurrency exchange, it was reported.
Trek Labs, a Dubai-based startup led by Sun, has got a license from the UAE’s crypto regulator. The crypto venture is aiming to sell a 10 per cent stake to investors at a valuation of over $100 million, the report mentioned. FTX’s ex-employee Armani Ferrante is chief executive of Trek’s holding company in the British Virgin Islands. Sun’s former legal deputy, who is also Ferrante’s wife, is on Trek’s executive team.
“In a post-FTX world, you need trust and transparency to create a true alternative to the other players,” Sun has said. They have hired other former FTX legal and compliance staff at Trek.
“Backpack Exchange, the name under which Trek Labs will do business, will allow users to hold funds in their own ‘self-custody crypto wallets’,...” the team said.