ARCHITECT SUCCESSES

SEE ALL
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

Uncategorized

Week of September 30 – October 6

Todd White
October 9, 2024
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

22 Crypto Private Financings Raised: ~$108M 

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $178M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $205M

 

 

Web3 does not lack grandiose visions— reinventing money, banking the unbanked, democratizing finance, digitizing everything, and the list goes on. The potential for disruptive applications is impressive, but in reality, most projects continue to suffer from a distinct lack of users—that ever-elusive product-market fit. And lately, the sparkle of all things crypto seems to have fizzled, while other tech, notably AI, attracts much attention from the media and investor checkbooks alike.

 

Regardless of where this leads, a tremendous amount of human and financial capital has been invested in the blockchain space. All that investment has helped refine numerous adjacent technologies that may prevail in the end, even if pure “crypto” falters.

 

One such example is zero-knowledge or “zk” technology. A conceptual oxymoron that remains enigmatic to many, it was conceived in the 1980s by theoretical mathematicians as a way to establish the veracity of a statement without revealing sensitive or confidential underlying data. But “zk” remained largely theoretical until blockchain technology enabled its application. The result has been a flood of excitement, with myriad teams seeking to build more secure authentication tools, safeguard user privacy, improve encryption, and many other innovations. Some believe that zk’s privacy potential will enable global privacy regulations, such as Europe’s GDPR, to actually work—and even save us all from the deep fakes of AI.

 

One such project—the Opacity Network—claims to be “the Internet, verified.” If that sounds grandiose, it is—they seek to reimagine the internet so users can retake control of their information. It has proved appealing to some credible investors, with the developers at Opacity Labs this week securing a modest $500k from a16z’s incubation platform, coupled with a $13.3M early-stage round led by The Department of XYZ.

 

We don’t know whether zk will save us all from an AI-fueled post-truth apocalypse (as some portend), but the technology is intellectually fascinating and may yet become a financially fruitful offshoot of the crypto boom.

 

 

 

Meet Architect Partners at these upcoming events:

  • Money2020 (Oct 27 – Oct 30)

 

 

Contact ryan@architectpartners.com to schedule a meeting.