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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
September 12, 2025
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Figure went public this week in an upsized IPO, selling 31.5 million shares at $25 per share to raise about $787.5 million, valuing the company at about $5.3 billion at pricing. Shares opened near $36 and closed at $31.11, implying a closing market cap of approximately $6.6 billion, about 24% above the IPO price. This marks a landmark IPO, as Figure is the first company to bring a large-scale, real-world blockchain use case to the public markets. Rather than focusing on speculation, Figure’s platform originates, funds, securitizes, and trades home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), all on-chain.

 

Founded in 2018 by Mike Cagney and June Ou, Figure developed the Provenance Blockchain as a ledger for loan origination, servicing, and secondary-market execution. It started by putting HELOCs on-chain and built a strong distribution engine, now partnering across the industry, including 10 of the top 20 mortgage companies and independent mortgage banks, to distribute HELOC products. The platform is now widely adopted by large financial institutions across mortgage and credit workflows.

 

Figure demonstrates that blockchain isn’t just for crypto trading; it can be applied usefully to traditional financial markets. The Provenance Blockchain supports the entire HELOC lifecycle, shortening funding timelines to about 10 days, versus an industry average of more than 40 days, and enabling on-chain issuance, sale, servicing, and lien registry updates with greater transparency and lower verification costs. A 2025 securitization using Provenance even earned an AAA rating from S&P Global Ratings, an industry first for blockchain-enabled assets.

 

Now that Figure has nailed HELOCs on-chain, it is evolving from balance-sheet lending to building an open marketplace and a full-scale digital asset exchange, Figure Markets, with the goal of tokenizing all securities over time. Linked here is our detailed M&A alert that describes Figure Technologies’ recent re-merger with Figure Markets and the dynamics behind it.

 

Altogether, Figure shows that blockchain can move real assets, not just digital tokens, driving institutional-scale trading, settlement, and registration on a single transparent ledger. The opportunity now is for Provenance rails to become standard infrastructure for credit and, potentially, other markets. The successful IPO establishes that blockchain can support a large, regulated market function end-to-end, underscoring that the technology has a use case outside of speculation.