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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 29 – August 4

Eric F. Risley
August 4, 2024
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Coinbase is carrying the entire crypto sector on its back while playing chess.

 

Count the ways:

 

  1. Transparency: Their quarterly shareholder letters are the gold (Bitcoin?) standard in clarity and disclosure, regardless of industry.
  2. Embracing Regulation:  From founding has worked to find the path that embraces the recognition that “fair and balanced” regulation and guideposts are good for the industry.
  3. Leading These Regulatory Efforts: Coinbase has invested $100s of millions to lead and build a policy initiative seeking this regulatory clarity across the globe.  Undoubtedly Coinbase has by far the largest people and capital investment driving this industry critical initiative.
  4. Beyond Speculation: Coinbase, a business built to trade crypto assets, recognizes that asset value speculation is simply the path to something much more important.  Brian Armstrong often calls it “driving crypto utility”.  Perhaps a simple way to say it is “do something useful for normal people”.  Base, USDC in partnership with Circle, Smart Wallet and embracing third party developers to build non-speculation-based applications are part of their “beyond speculation” strategy.
  5. The Strategy of Simple:  No normal human cares about the fancy blockchains, algorithms, cryptography, tokens, bridges, seed phrases, identity verification, bridges, transaction throughput, gas fees, mining and staking, KYC/AML, …  Normal people simply want to “do something useful”, safely and easily.  
  6. The Real Prize High in Mind: Coinbase is one of very few that are focused on the billions that can benefit from the “do something useful” vs. the perhaps million (less than one million?) people globally that drive 90% of crypto value speculation and resulting fees from this speculation.  The big picture matters most.

 

These thoughts follow Coinbase’s Q2 2024 earning announcement this past week where all the above was apparent.  Also, this week a small M&A transaction was announced between two companies embracing crypto based payments.  As highlighted last week, transferring money between people or paying for goods and services supports a multi-trillion dollar global banking system.  What happens if a payment can be made simply, with confidence and safety and instantly without the complexity of the current banking system?  Payments are a great example of “do something useful”, one of many.  Easy to say, hard to do, however, the prize is massive.