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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

Q1 2024 Crypto M&A and Financing Report

Elliot Chun
April 4, 2024
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Download the full report above.

Crypto Mergers & Acquisitions

 

The market tone continues to improve, but M&A activity is still running below 2022 levels.

 

Announced M&A deal activity in Q1 2024 was up 22% from the previous quarter – good news indeed, but still below the pace of the peak year 2022. The crypto sector’s announced deal activity improved a bit more than the overall tech sector deal activity, in contrast to an observed decline in announced fintech deals last quarter. (Note that most announced crypto deals do not have an announced value, so deal value is not an accurate indicator.)

 

In Q4 2023, 39% of crypto deals were in the Brokers & Exchanges or Investing & Trading Infrastructure subsectors.  This trend continued in Q1, with 45% of deals in the same two leading sectors.

 

The share of “bridge transaction” deals in which a non-crypto native firm acquired a crypto-native firm inched up to 25% last quarter, indicating increased comfort with the sector. 

 

Valkyrie Funds | CoinShares, Brassica | BitGo, and the three-way combination of SingularityNET, fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol into the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (at a whopping $7.5B notional value) were the headline M&A deals in Q1.

Crypto Private Financings

 

A significant rebound compared to 2023, but there is a lack of conviction in later-stage growth capital financings.

 

Disclosed private financings increased significantly in Q1 from Q4 2023, with capital raised increasing by 36% and the number of financings increasing by 77%. However, if the pace from Q1 remains for the rest of 2024, the financings market would be at $12.4 billion in capital raised, still over 50% lower than the levels seen in 2021 and 2022.

 

Part of this decrease is likely due to the lack of significant, large-scale, later-stage growth capital rounds. In 2020-2022, there were numerous $100 million+ deals completed every week. This quarter, however, there were only four, of which two were earlier stage/seed stage deals.

 

On this theme, there was a 112% increase from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024 in the number of early-stage financings but only a 32% increase for later-stage financings. In addition, seed-stage financings attracted a 108% increase in capital, while later-stage financings only attracted 25% more.

Crypto Public Companies

 

Public crypto markets had mixed results in Q1.    

 

Bitcoin rallied from $42,000 in January to $72,000 by March 12, setting a new all-time high. For the quarter, bitcoin was up 63%, and Ethereum was up 53%. There were several factors driving the price of bitcoin, including the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, the upcoming bitcoin halving, uncertain and volatile macroeconomic and global political conditions, and an overall surge in institutional support.

 

With bitcoin’s price appreciation, trading volumes are generally higher, allowing exchanges to benefit from higher transaction fees and commissions. Many of the stronger crypto exchanges saw high share price appreciation during Q1, with Coinbase up 69%, Galaxy Digital up 40%, and Coinshares up 31%.

 

On the flip side, despite the run-up in bitcoin, the majority of bitcoin miners saw their share prices decline. This decline is attributed to the correlation of bitcoin prices to hash rates and the impact on profitability, the halving, and the proposed 30% excise tax on miners’ energy use.