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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 October 9 – October 15

Eric F. Risley
October 15, 2023
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Our team will be at Money2020 in a week.  Please email ryan@architectpartners.com if you’d like to meet.

 

Data and data analytics is a crucial segment within crypto.  Data reveals the most fundamental questions like, “what is the price of Bitcoin?” and simply put, informs every crypto asset investment made.  Data’s value extends far beyond price data and includes being the key ingredient for trading markets, reveals the use and trends of blockchains, powers trading risk management and lending risk management, identifies and stops fraud, drives regulatory compliance, identity, accounting, auditing and taxes, informs trading strategies and research, allows an understanding of crypto users, helps improve application use and performance, informs marketing efforts, and the list goes on.  These use cases touch every single crypto asset market participant.

 

Under this theme, one of the leading data & data analytics companies, TRM Labs, announced the acquisition of Bitcoinabuse.com.  Their product, Chainabuse, is a crowdsourced crypto fraud reporting platform designed to reveal and stop malicious activities impacting crypto participants.  As is often the case, business development relationships often predate an acquisition.  In this case, TRM Labs was an early partner with Bitcoinabuse.com helping to launch Chainabuse.

 

TRM Labs raised an impressive $70M growth capital round in late 2022 with top-tier new investors Thoma Bravo, Goldman Sachs, Brevan Howard, Geodesic Capital and CMT Digital.  TRM Labs is focused on identifying fraud, money laundering and financial crimes and peers include Chainalysis and Elliptic among others.  Architect Partners has published a variety of research and insights on the data & data analytics sector, with more coming shortly.