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Swyftx Acquires Caleb & Brown
Swyftx Acquires Caleb & Brown

Transaction Overview

On July 1st, 2025, Swyftx, one of the largest Australian cryptocurrency exchanges, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Caleb & Brown, a high-net-worth-focused crypto brokerage, for an undisclosed amount.

 

Target: Caleb & Brown

Caleb and Brown is a Melbourne-based, high net worth focused crypto brokerage that specializes in personalized trading services across the digital asset landscape. Caleb & Brown focuses on the relationship model used successfully across traditional  financial services – every client that comes onto their platform gets assigned a broker to assist them in executing trades  and handling all customer service needs. Caleb and Brown’s core services include 1) Brokerage Services, which provide personalized 24/7 trading support for 250+ digital assets, 2) an OTC Desk, which provides high volume trading solutions with deep liquidity and competitive pricing, 3) the Caleb and Brown Asset Management, an actively managed crypto asset fund for accredited investor, 4) crypto custody. 

 

The business has more than AUD $2 billion of digital assets under custody and was founded by Rupert Hackett and Dr. Prash Puspanathan in 2016. C&B is led by CEO Jackson Zeng and has 64 team members across both Australia and the US. Caleb & Brown has not raised any outside capital. 

 

Architect Partners’ Observations

Architect Partners acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Caleb & Brown. 

 

Swyftx’s acquisition of Caleb & Brown marks the largest acquisition targeting high net worth crypto investors. It also reflects two important shifts in the evolution of crypto exchanges, particularly within the ANZ region.

 

First, high-net-worth client service is becoming a strategic differentiator. Exchanges are beginning to recognize that personalized brokerage and deep client relationships offer a competitive advantage while greatly reducing attrition. This is a model that high-net-worth clients are accustomed to in their financial lives. Caleb & Brown’s approach, which assigns a dedicated broker to every client, stands apart from the high-volume, low-touch models that dominate the market. Swyftx gains access not only to clients but also to an established business model that emphasizes trust, service, and retention in a way few crypto exchanges have pursued.

 

Second, this is a milestone moment for ANZ crypto M&A. While there have been many plays for global expansion by exchanges, this is the first of its kind in Australia moving into the US, signaling that the region is entering a more active phase of market maturity. 

 

We believe this transaction will serve as a catalyst for further strategic activity to expand globally and to augment services as companies seek differentiation in both product and customer segments.

 

Strategic Rationale

Swyftx is acquiring Caleb & Brown to expand into the United States via C&B’s regulatory framework, and to acquire the relationship model inherently required with a higher-tier customer base. This acquisition will grant Swyftx entry into the U.S. 12 to 24 months faster than otherwise possible organically. Furthermore, the acquisition diversifies Swyftx’s primarily retail client base to include 25k+ high net worth individuals in numerous countries. 

 

“Caleb & Brown has quietly established one of the most impressive brokerage offerings in the world, with a heavily differentiated private client service. We see enormous growth potential.” – Jason Titman

Insights

Week of June 23 – June 29

Todd White
July 2, 2025
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June 23 – June 29 (Published July 2nd)

 

PERSPECTIVES by Todd White

 

29 Crypto Private Financings Raised: $296.6M

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $260.7M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $257.0M

 

The convergence of traditional financial markets and blockchain technology may finally be becoming reality. It is often said that innovation happens gradually, then suddenly. For more than a decade the prospect of tech-driven disruption in capital markets seemed perpetually just over the horizon. Many smart teams built clever solutions, yet momentum and adoption failed to materialize, until (perhaps?) now.

 

This season has been dubbed “stablecoin summer,” with much buzz about digital payments finally attaining product-market fit, bolstered by steady improvements, legislative tailwinds, shifting political sentiment, and a banner IPO. Across the sector a wave of announcements, long in the making, is now arriving by the day, hour, or minute: projects are getting off the ground, capital rounds are being completed, collaborations are brewing, and deals are being announced and closed. The summer may now be entirely owned by the stables.

 

At its core, crypto and blockchain present the first prospect for a wholly new system of financial infrastructure in a very long time. Regulated financial institutions, once skeptical of most things crypto, are increasingly interested in how blockchain infrastructure and payment-and-settlement rails can enhance their businesses. The largest institutions, however, face strict requirements for privacy, auditability, compliance with AML and other regulations, and the need to control transactions and limit access. Some, such as JPMorgan, responded by downplaying traditional crypto while building their own private chain, now known as Kinexys, on which they can manage secure transactions and launch products like the JPMD deposit token, an innovative twist on stablecoins available to their institutional clients. But because it is available only to JPMorgan clients, Kinexys and JPMD are not interoperable and may have limited application for inter-bank payments and broader non-JPM-led markets.

 

This tension between privacy, control, and interoperability has been a particular challenge, but solutions are emerging. The Canton Network, created by blockchain-infrastructure company Digital Asset, is a public, permissionless Layer 1 designed with the privacy, compliance, and interoperability requirements of global capital markets in mind. Unlike most public blockchains, Canton is structured as a collection of applications running on separate Canton ledgers that can choose to connect to other applications and users, or remain isolated from them. The applications are written in Daml (Digital Asset Modeling Language), a purpose-built, open-source smart-contract language. Together, Canton and Daml aim to deliver privacy and data control without sacrificing the efficiency and interoperability of public blockchains.

 

Digital Asset’s reported metrics suggest strong product-market fit: more than 4 trillion dollars in tokenized real-world assets, over 2 trillion dollars in monthly transaction volume, and 12 billion dollars in digitally native security issuances. Participants in the Canton Network already include major banks, asset managers, custodians, exchanges, and infrastructure providers, with notable collaborations involving Broadridge, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, HKEX, Nasdaq, Tradeweb, Versana, DTCC, Euroclear, and others.

 

Last week Digital Asset announced a strategic funding round of 135 million dollars led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities, BNP Paribas, DTCC, Circle Ventures, Paxos, Polychain Capital, and others. The round marks a convergence of traditional-finance and crypto-native investors and could accelerate adoption and scaling of the Canton Network. Chief Executive Officer Yuval Rooz stated that the capital moves Digital Asset from “momentum to scale,” enabling rapid client onboarding and global market expansion.

 

Will Mr. Rooz be proved correct, and will global capital markets adopt a public blockchain that offers configurable privacy and decentralized governance? Time will tell, but with many key market players already at the table as collaborators and strategic investors, the prospects look good.

 

Contact ryan@architectpartners.com to schedule a meeting.