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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

Crypto Public Companies Snapshot

Crypto Public Companies Snapshot

Elliot Chun
June 28, 2024
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Q2 2024 delivers the most active quarter for Crypto Public Companies since Q2 2022.

11 of the 21 constituents in the Architect Crypto Public Company Index announced meaningful corporate actions in the quarter.

 

Capital activity in BTC Mining continues with Coatue investing $150M in Hut 8 (HUT) through a convertible note. This investment aligns with the BTC Mining and AI compute combination thesis as well as the transition of BTC network operators to energy infrastructure providers. Coatue’s participation is important as they were one of the most active crossover funds who invested in crypto during the last cycle. Having an investor of this magnitude return to crypto is a strong indicator that new capital will flow into the industry.

 

Acquisition activity in BTC Mining continued its rampant pace as Cleanspark (CLSK) announced two additional acquisitions. They acquired GRIID Infrastructure (GRDI) for $155M in an all-stock transaction, which they expect will add 400MW of capacity in Tennessee. GRIID was one of the few crypto companies to complete a public listing through the SPAC process, though they experienced significant delays along the way. CLSK also acquired 5 BTC mining sites in Georgia for $25.8M in all cash. With 4 acquisitions in 2024, CLSK is actively executing their BTC Miner roll-up strategy while showing their flexibility to structure all-cash and all-stock transactions. They have positioned themselves in reach for the title of largest publicly traded BTC Miner.

 

In Feb, Architect Partners said we expect “meaningful” mining-related M&A in the second half of 2024, and into next year.  With 8 M&A transactions in 2024, the activity came faster than even we thought.

 

Our industry needs legitimacy in order to attract new high quality market participants. One of the best ways of legitimizing crypto is having traditional financial services organizations provide crypto services. In the last two weeks, Itau (ITUB, $54B Mkt Cap), Standard Chartered (STAN.L, $18B Mkt Cap), and Santander (SAN, $72B Mkt Cap) all announced crypto trading services. 

 

From a product perspective, Nubank (NU, $61B Mkt Cap) announced a partnership with Lightspark to bring the Bitcoin Lightning Network to Nubank’s users. State Street (STT, $22B Mkt Cap) and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) announced digital asset investment products that focus on all the other investable assets that are happening in our $2.3T digital asset ecosystem, outside of BTC and ETH. Both of these are important announcements as they improve our industry’s distribution and eventual adoption of the asset class.

 

All this real capital, M&A, products and services activity to start 2024 signals an accelerating and robust go-forward market environment for our industry. We are just getting started.

 

Architect Partners will release our Q2 Crypto M&A and Financings report next week.