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Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx has agreed to buy boutique digital assets brokerage Caleb & Brown in a deal targeting the US’s wealthiest crypto investors.
Caleb & Brown is a crypto brokerage and asset manager focussed on HNW private investors in the United States. It currently operates across the US, with a head office in Melbourne. The business launched in 2016 and offers a heavily personalised, one-to-one brokerage service to clients.
The deal is the largest crypto acquisition in ANZ history and gives Swyftx access to the world’s leading digital assets’ market at a time when the US has sought to position itself as the ‘crypto capital of the planet’. The US currently accounts for around a quarter of all global trade volumes in cryptocurrency.
Swyftx has grown rapidly over the last six years to become one of the region’s largest digital asset brokerages, with more than 1.2 million customers across its Group.
Its chief executive, Jason Titman, said:
“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.”
“Swyftx has the resources to build on Caleb & Brown’s competitive advantages and peel-off high net worth clients from the largest exchanges. There are polished and well-respected platforms operating in the US but a lot of the new breed of wealthy investors want a service that is ultra client-centric, with round-the-clock access to broker expertise. It is the kind of relationship management they get in traditional finance.”
“Over the next couple of years we’ll look to significantly grow Caleb & Brown’s network of relationship managers so that we can target more wealthy clients from the big US exchanges on their home turf. We see this as an underserved market.”
Caleb & Brown provides crypto brokerage, asset management and research services to thousands of private clients in the US, as well as Australia. The business has more than USD $2 billion of digital assets under custody and was founded by Rupert Hackett and Dr Prash Puspanathan in 2016. It is led by equal partner Jackson Zeng and employs 64 team members across both Australia and the US.
Jackson Zeng, chief executive of Caleb & Brown, said:
“We’re excited to join the Swyftx Group. It is the fastest-growing exchange in the ANZ region and shares our client-centric approach.”
“This deal is a testament to the strength of our brokerage and its differentiated offering. Swyftx has the resources to help us scale faster, diversify our product offering and expand our geographic reach.”
The acquisition of Caleb & Brown comes around three months after Swyftx signed a deal to buy Easy Crypto, New Zealand’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The acquisition will give Swyftx the largest geographic reach of any Australian exchange, with access to markets including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.
The Swyftx group will employ just under 300 team members on completion of the deal.
Spartan acted as financial adviser to Swyftx and Architect Partners acted as advisers to Caleb & Brown.
For further information please contact the Swyftx media team at [email protected]
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