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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 May 26 – June 01

Eric F. Risley
June 01, 2025
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May 26th – June 1st

PERSPECTIVES by Eric F. Risley 

 

This past Tuesday, Circle announced its intention to proceed with its initial public offering at an expected pre-IPO enterprise value of $4.6 to $5.6 billion. Although not an M&A announcement, the transaction is another milestone for the crypto industry and offers insights and signals that affect the M&A markets.

 

Like many other businesses in the crypto sector, Circle is working its way back toward the valuation achieved in its last private financing. During the exuberance preceding the self-induced Crypto Winter, leading crypto companies set very high valuation marks. In April 2022, Circle completed a $400 million Series F preferred-stock financing at a $7.7 billion post-money valuation. The anticipated IPO valuation is 27 to 40 percent below that level. This gap has implications for employee-incentive plans and preferred-equity conversion rights, which can complicate or even preclude both IPO and M&A transactions. Circle has navigated these issues, but one use of proceeds will be the cost of restructuring its employee-stock plan.

 

While Circle’s expected IPO valuation is robust, market expectations are relatively conservative compared with financial metrics and comparable companies. If priced at the upper end of the range, Circle would trade at about 3 times last-twelve-month revenue and 16.9 times EBITDA. Coinbase, by comparison, trades at roughly 8.2 times revenue and 32.6 times EBITDA. The difference reflects company-specific factors, business-model distinctions, and broader market conditions, underscoring that each business has unique drivers when establishing “market-clearing” valuation.

 

Circle also illustrates the emergence of a proven use case for crypto assets: payments. Architect Partners is particularly enthusiastic about the use of crypto assets, especially stablecoins, for a variety of real-world payments by businesses and individuals. Our Architect Insight research series, “Crypto Payments and Infrastructure,” explores this opportunity; we published the first installment last week and will release additional reports over the coming weeks.

 

The acceptance of stablecoins, and of crypto as an asset class, is being codified rapidly by global regulators. Examples include the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the Hong Kong Stablecoin Bill passed in May 2025, and recent efforts by the US Congress to pass stablecoin legislation. This regulatory clarity is significant given that stablecoins are explicitly 100 percent collateralized by fiat instruments such as government securities and cash. The integration of crypto and traditional financial assets continues apace.

 

Public companies are generally more active acquirers than privately held businesses. One critical impediment to crypto M&A today is the limited number of premium-value acquirers. That should change in the coming quarters, driven by IPOs like Circle’s and, perhaps even more importantly, by the entry of a broad range of traditional financial-services firms seeking to move into the crypto markets in various ways.

 

More detail on the Circle IPO in our Architect Insights Financing Alert, here.