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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

Week of April 8 – April 14

Glenn Gottlieb
April 17, 2024
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

25 Crypto Private Financings Raised ~$407M 

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $250M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $184M

 

Deal count dipped significantly last week, while 75% of funds raised came from two deals.   We’ll continue to keep an eye on whether last week was just a slow week or whether broader macro issues are affecting the funding environment. 

 

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When the 4th Bitcoin halving occurs, miner rewards will fall from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.   On a macro level, the pre-planned event is intended to increase scarcity and presumably increase the value of each BTC.   One of the questions that comes about due to the halving is the question of miner profitability.   With BTC prices rising, this would not necessarily be an issue for miners, but what if the price of BTC falls, as it is currently?  Miners have various revenue sources aside from rewards to assist with revenue flow, but profitability remains highly dependent upon continuous improvement in operational efficiency.

 

Miners moved to mining specific ASICs to increase computing power, and have also continually improved their ability to manage the huge economic impact of energy resources.   In November, Auradine introduced its Teraflux Mining Systems product line that assists miner operations in both of those key areas.   Teraflux not only provides extreme performance in air-cooled and immersion environments, but also enables miners to dynamically adjust energy consumption and hash rate based on the demand response needs of the electrical grids.

 

Since its introduction, Auradine’s customer base has grown to over 30 data center scale miners, $80M in bookings, and over $200M in their order pipeline.   Based on this success, Auradine announced it raised $80M in an oversubscribed Series B, which followed an $81M Series A in 2022.    New investors included StepStone Group, Top Tier Capital Partners, MVP Ventures, and Maverick Capital.  Existing investors, including Celesta Capital, Mayfield Fund, and Marathon Digital also participated. 

 

The new funding is expected to enable Auradine to increase production and to accelerate R&D into additional solutions on its roadmap, which includes Blockchain and AI security.