JAN3 Names Aleksey Bragin as Chief Technology Officer

JAN3 has appointed Aleksey Bragin as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Bragin brings a background in computer science, a longstanding interest in Bitcoin, and experience developing financial technology products.

Very excited to have Aleksey as part of the @JAN3com team! He’s a true pioneer in the #Bitcoin space, launching the first Bitcoin futures exchange in 2012 and making inverse contracts the norm! He knew Bitcoin would be the standard and now we’ll work together to accelerate it! 🙏 https://t.co/P1VUztiIpR
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) June 11, 2025

Bragin became involved with Bitcoin in 2011, a period when the asset was trading between $1 and $3.

Initially participating as a miner, he later focused on addressing Bitcoin’s price volatility, which at the time posed challenges for its use in daily transactions.

In response, Bragin co-founded ICBIT, which he describes as the first Bitcoin futures exchange.

The platform allowed users to manage price risk using futures contracts and included features such as inverse contracts—trades settled in Bitcoin rather than fiat currency. These mechanisms are now widely used in Bitcoin and crypto derivatives markets.

ICBIT was eventually closed due to regulatory concerns related to oversight by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

According to Bragin, the team opted to return customer funds and cease operations rather than pursue litigation.

The platform's technical assets were later acquired by Swedish Bitcoin and cryptocurrency brokerage Safello, where Bragin served as CTO.

Following his tenure at Safello, Bragin took a break from the industry. He later expressed renewed interest in Bitcoin after watching HBO’s Money Electric, which featured JAN3 representatives. This led to his decision to join JAN3.

“When I heard Samson say Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency, and always will be, I felt like someone finally said the quiet part out loud. I had been through the ICOs, the NFT mania, the blockchain hype. AQUA was different. It was grounded in reality.”

As CTO, Bragin will oversee the development of AQUA, a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet.

His stated goal is to maintain the app’s ease of use while integrating more advanced features, such as support for the Lightning and Liquid networks, improved multisig tools, and user interfaces designed to simplify complex tasks without compromising user control.

“AQUA will always be a non-custodial wallet at its core, but we want it to be something your grandma can use, and something a technical power user can rely on.”

JAN3 said it looks forward to Bragin’s contributions as the company continues to develop its product offerings in the Bitcoin space.