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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 November 13 – November 19

Eric F. Risley
November 19, 2023
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Call us curious.

 

Not often does a venture capital firm acquire a large controlling ownership position in a young business and even more unusual, doing so by acquiring a founders stake.  This week Foresight Ventures did just that, acquiring 80% of the The Block from its founder for $60M, according to Bloomberg reporting.  This values the entire business at $75M. To make this even more fascinating, according to Pitchbook, Foresight manages a $400M fund which suggests this single investment represents 15% of their entire fund, an extraordinarily large concentration for a venture capital firm, particularly given that almost none of the funds are actually being used to create future value at The Block, rather solely benefiting the founder who has departed.

 

Historically, The Block has been a well-regarded crypto news and data publisher.  Unfortunately, they found themselves implicated in controversy but the team persevered and has continued to deliver insightful and needed news, information, data and data analytics to the industry.  At the core, at least today, they are a media company with a strategy to build a resilient and high-value data and data analytics subscription business to complement the challenging aspects of being in the media business.  Certainly a reasonable strategy and similar to what Bloomberg has done, albeit Bloomberg did it in the reverse order and they waited 30 years and built a world-class brand and overall business before they started their media division.

 

The Block competitors include Coindesk, Cointelegraph, Decrypt, Blockworks, Messari and many others of smaller scale.  Being primarily a media business, readership matters.  So how do they stack up?  According to Similarweb, The Block attracted 2.2M visits from both mobile and desktop over the past 30 days.  That compares to 6.9M for Coindesk, 8.2M for Cointelegraph, 2.8M for Decrypt, 1.3M for Blockworks and 432K for Messari.  For additional context, some of the major exchanges dwarf these sites with Binance attracting 50M visits, Coinbase attracting 28M and Kraken attracting 5.8M.  Lastly, Coindesk, a DCG subsidiary, was, according to multiple news sources, to be acquired for $125M earlier this year.  The close of that transaction has not yet been confirmed.