TechFlow news: Some former FTX executives, including Can Sun, the ex-general counsel of FTX, are teaming up to launch a new cryptocurrency exchange called Trek Labs. The company plans to sell 10% of its shares to investors and is seeking a valuation of over $100 million.
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Can Sun testified as a key witness in SBF's criminal trial. Trek Labs, a Dubai-based startup led by Can Sun, obtained a license last month from the UAE’s crypto regulator.
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Another former FTX employee, Armani Ferrante, serves as CEO of Trek’s holding company in the British Virgin Islands. He also runs a related company named Backpack, which designs and operates digital currency wallets.
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Sun’s former legal assistant, who is also Ferrante’s wife, is part of Trek’s executive team.
Sun and Ferrante said they aim to apply lessons learned from FTX’s collapse to better protect user funds. They stated that Trek Labs will operate under the name Backpack Exchange and will leverage Backpack’s technology to allow users to hold their funds in “self-custody” crypto wallets—funds that the exchange itself cannot unilaterally access.
Sun also said that he and Ferrante have hired other former FTX legal and compliance staff to join the new exchange.
