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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 M&A Snapshot

Week of July 21 – July 27

Eric F. Risley
July 27, 2025
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July 21st – July 27th

PERSPECTIVES by Eric F. Risley 

 

Stablecoins Have Beaten Bitcoin

Blockstream’s acquisition of Elysium Labs brought to mind the “Bitcoin vs. everything else” debate.

So far, the vision of Bitcoin as a form of payment has been unrealized. Stablecoins have won. As highlighted in our recent Crypto Payments & Infrastructure: The Strategic Opportunity, stablecoins represent $7.1 trillion in annual normalized volume of transactions. By comparison, Bitcoin’s payment-optimized L2, the Lightning Network, volume remains in the low single-digit billions per year. So far, stablecoins have won due to:

 

  • U.S. Dollar Preference: Virtually all stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar, the dominant, often preferred, global currency.

 

  • Lack of Price Volatility: The U.S. dollar peg eliminates concern over Bitcoin’s price volatility.

 

  • Spending vs. Investing: Bitcoin is widely seen as an appreciating investment, not something used for day-to-day payments.

 

  • Low fees, quick settlement, easy, and now with regulatory clarity: Sending stablecoins is fast, costs just pennies, and is now widely integrated into exchanges, apps, and wallets, appealing for all parties in the transaction. Recently advanced stablecoin legislation offers the comfort of regulatory legitimacy.

What could change over the next few years to reverse this trend? Well, Bitcoin has a number of important differentiators and perhaps relative advantages. These include the lack of a centralized issuer reducing or eliminating counterparty and censorship risks, privacy advantages, finality of transactions, and inflation protection. We will explore this topic in more detail next week.