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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

Financing

Week of September 15 – September 21

Steve Payne
September 24, 2025
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September 15 – September 21 (Published September 24th)

PERSPECTIVES by Steve Payne

 

18 Crypto Private Financings Raised: $168.3M

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $357.6M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $343.8M

 

Starting off this Weekly Financing Snapshot with thanks to my colleague, Todd White, who has filled this space with his learned commentary for the past handful of months.

 

Looking at last week’s transactions, three main takeaways stand out:

 

Trendlines. Last week’s reported private company financings were below half the level of our rolling average (that’s why we report a rolling average…). This is not a cause for concern, since short-term fluctuations don’t matter, and because of the strength of these rounds and the quality of investors (see paragraph below). And since this week ended, we’ve already seen multiple $100M+ financing rounds – could it be that growth stage investing is back? More on this next week.

 

Investors Matter. The top 3 investments last week were led by quality, mainline investors, not crypto-native VCs or angel investors. Why is this noteworthy? Nothing against the latter groups (they often are prescient early movers), but deals led by Lightspeed, PayPal Ventures, and Norwest are another indication that the crypto/blockchain ecosystem is growing up and moving beyond speculative use cases to real financial and enterprise use cases. When we see participation by “institutional” stalwarts such as these plus co-investors like NEA, Foundation Capital, NFX, and Peterson Partners, we expect to see portfolio companies with solid traction and strong growth potential.

 

Stablecoin Summer. We’ve written this year about payments becoming a driving use case, underlaid by stablecoins, and also published a three-part report on blockchain in payments last quarter (linked here). Last week, Brale raised $30M, led by Lightspeed, to expand their enterprise platform for issuing and operating regulated, multi-chain stablecoins. Stablecore raised $20M, led by Norwest, to grow their digital-asset platform that allows banks to create, manage, and integrate stablecoins and digital assets into existing bank products and systems.