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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 March 17 – March 23

Eric F. Risley
March 23, 2025
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March 17th – March 23rd

PERSPECTIVES by Eric F. Risley 

 

Broker and exchange consolidation is in full swing, finally.

 

Kraken’s acquisition of NinjaTrader made headlines as the largest crypto M&A transaction in the industry’s history. NinjaTrader offers futures and foreign exchange trading services across a wide variety of assets—beyond just crypto—to retail investors. As highlighted previously, acquisitions between traditional financial services and crypto businesses are becoming increasingly common. In this case, the crypto specialist is embracing traditional financial markets, with Kraken adding the trading of futures contracts for stock market indices, bonds, gold, crude oil, and foreign exchange to complement its historical crypto-only focus. We have a more detailed analysis in our M&A Alert here.

 

Three additional broker and exchange transactions were announced this week, marking a record for any single week. Swyftx, the second-largest crypto broker in Australia, acquired EasyCrypto, the largest crypto broker in New Zealand. In line with geographic expansion, LPT acquired Turing Capital Brokerage, offering MiCA-licensed access to Spain and the EU.

 

Although still a work in progress, regulatory clarity is improving. As highlighted below—taken from our Year-End 2024 Crypto M&A and Financings Report in January—this topic remains a critically important gating factor for the broadening of crypto M&A activity, particularly regarding the entry of traditional financial institutions.

 

“There are several gating factors preventing additional buyers from jumping in, starting with regulatory clarity. When we see bridge transactions TradFi buying crypto natives) we know those regulatory hurdles are low enough to commit capital. Really only Robinhood acquiring Bitstamp fits, but it is something we closely monitor. Also favorable are reverse bridge transactions (crypto native buying TradFi), and crypto.com has done two of them in Q4. The weaving together of TradFi and crypto natives makes sense to us and we expect more to come. 

 

In sum, not enough activity to say itʼs a healthy market, but we are hearing optimism we havenʼt heard for the past two years. This optimism is coming from large and small players, with several large players sharing they are reviving acquisition efforts of scale. So we expect headline consolidation deals in the upcoming year.”

 

Michael Klena, Partner