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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

Financing

Week of June 30 – July 06

Todd White
July 9, 2025
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June 30 – July 06 (Published July 9th)

PERSPECTIVES by Todd White

 

30 Crypto Private Financings Raised: $764.6M

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $544.4M

Rolling 52-Week Average: 326.6M

 

The Architect Partners Q2 2025 Crypto M&A and Financing Report was released yesterday and featured on CNBC. Much of the headline focus has been Q2 M&A activity, which marked the best quarter to date, with numerous sector records broken. Yet private-financing momentum is also solid: invested funds already exceed 80% of the 2024 total, even before including the recent spate of treasury-related PIPE transactions.

 

Two notable trends are developing. The first is that, within the persistent preference for infrastructure investments, payments-related initiatives have seen the most dramatic rise in support, with a 216% increase in funding activity from last year alone. The second is the earnest arrival of crypto treasuries and their associated PIPE transactions. Famously pioneered by Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, we have now seen, in 2025 alone, 109 public treasury-related announcements and follow-on offerings accounting for more than $72.5 billion in intended capital commitments toward crypto-treasury accumulation. When these are added to the traditional funding rounds cited above, aggregate year-to-date financing reaches $12.7 billion, well above the full-year totals of $10.7 billion and $9.1 billion for 2023 and 2024, respectively, and it is on pace to surpass their combined total if 2025 activity continues apace.

 

While these developments may appear disparate, they align in ways that create opportunities for companies positioned at or near the crossroads where the two converge. We have conducted deep research into the payments space (Part I: Why Crypto Payments, Part II: The Momentum is Building, Part III: The Market Map), and the prospect of the first entirely new system of payments infrastructure is enticing, though still early. We are also developing informed views of the evolving crypto-treasury space, where a common concern is the need for real business activity, beyond mere asset accumulation, to generate alpha. Shifting treasury focus to a crypto asset such as ETH or SOL, which offers additional utility and can generate yield through staking or other means, helps address that concern. Pivoting to an asset that sits at the nexus of other industry trends may unlock further opportunities.

 

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) may be doing just that. Historically operating as a Bitcoin miner that leveraged low-cost energy regions to maximize operational efficiency, BMNR has recently pivoted to an Ethereum-centric treasury strategy, aiming to become a public proxy for institutional ETH exposure. This shift coincides with the appointment of Fundstrat’s Tom Lee as board chair and reflects a belief in Ethereum’s role as the backbone of stablecoin settlements and DeFi. “Ethereum is the blockchain where the majority of stablecoin payments are transacted,” Mr. Lee has stated, “and thus, ETH should benefit from this growth.” The move to ETH therefore positions BMNR to capture additional value from the anticipated surge in stablecoin- and DeFi-related payment activity on Ethereum.

 

The move is not without risk, as there is no guarantee that Ethereum will maintain its dominance in stablecoin payment rails. Other groups, such as 1Money’s stablecoin-specific layer-1 blockchain, are vying for position in the coming payments wave. However, investors are supportive: BMNR secured a $250 million private placement last week in a round led by major investors such as Mozayyx, Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, and Kraken. The capital is earmarked specifically for building a substantial ETH treasury, potentially increasing BitMine’s crypto holdings more than sixteen-fold. Public markets appear aligned as well, with BMNR’s shares enjoying a significant run in the wake of the announcement.