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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

Ryan McCulloch

November 15, 2024

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Where have all the crypto SPACs gone?

In 2020 and 2021, there were a massive eruption of SPAC announcements. Since then there have been 20 crypto companies that were supposed to go public at egregious valuations and eventually only 8 closed.

Crypto SPAC announcements include:

Bitcoin Network Operators: TeraWulf, Cipher Mining, Core Scientific, Bitdeer, BitFufu, Coincheck, Fold, PrimeBlock and Future Dao.

Crypto Investment Platforms: Bakkt, Bitcoin Depot, Griid Infrastructure, Bullish, Circle, eToro, Qenta Inc., DLTx ASA, W3bcloud, Apifiny Group, and Roxe.

Note that those in italics are still in progress, while those in bold have failed their attempted merger.

Despite struggles, CoinCheck has beat the odds and continues with their $1.3B De-SPAC that was first announced in March 2022. After a two year battle with the SEC, CoinCheck has now received SEC approval to be listed on the Nasdaq and anticipates debuting in early December.

Looking at our index today, those that have did close are down an average of 38%, since their initial stock price at the close of their De-SPAC. Overall it’s been quite a mixed bag for SPACs in crypto, with most going poorly. We believe the next round of crypto companies going public will take the traditional IPO path and will begin gearing up for that as markets start to improve.

We know many like Kraken, FalconX, Fireblocks, Chainalysis, Anchorage Digital, BitGo, NYDIG, Ledger, and others have already announced their intentions of going public through the traditional IPO path.