Learn What Makes Caleb & Brown A Leading Crypto Brokerage
Jake Boyle, Chief Commercial Officer at Caleb & Brown, was recently a guest on Benzinga's All-Access.
Caleb & Brown calls itself the crypto investor's expert partner. It provides personalized service for beginners and advanced investors alike and helps its clients navigate the sometimes turbulent waters of crypto to build wealth. The company is dedicated to bringing a white-glove approach to the world of crypto.
The brokerage focuses on educating its clients and helping them understand the world of cryptocurrency. This approach makes it a trusted partner for its clients.
Caleb & Brown calls itself the crypto investor's expert partner. It provides personalized service for beginners and advanced investors alike and helps its clients navigate the sometimes turbulent waters of crypto to build wealth. The company is dedicated to bringing a white-glove approach to the world of crypto.
The brokerage focuses on educating its clients and helping them understand the world of cryptocurrency. This approach makes it a trusted partner for its clients.
Transcript
00:00Welcome back, Benzinga Nation. You know what we like to do, and that is bring you executives
00:07of exciting companies. And today we are talking to Chief Commercial Officer Jake Boyle at
00:11Caleb and Brown, the world's leading crypto brokerage. Jake, how are you doing today?
00:17Very well. How are you doing?
00:18I'm good. Thank you for joining us today. Before we get started, do you mind just giving
00:22us a brief overview of your company?
00:25For sure. So Caleb and Brown is an Australian company. We started in 2016, which for a normal
00:31business makes us pretty new, but for a crypto business, that makes us fairly old. We decided
00:36to go with a brokerage model for our business. So much like an exchange, we can buy, sell,
00:41swap cryptocurrencies. It's just instead of doing that through a purely automated system
00:46where you have to kind of figure it out yourself as a consumer, we take the approach of using
00:51a white glove brokerage model. So much like how you might have a broker for gold or for
00:55property or other industries that have been around for hundreds of years, we thought that
01:01the principles of a brokerage are fantastic because it empowers customer service, customer
01:06dedication. You can really build a premium model for what you do. The problem is cryptocurrency
01:11is so nuanced and so new, it's volatile, it's problematic at the best of times, and it's
01:18a horror shot the worst of times. So we thought a brokerage model really makes the most sense
01:22for the crypto space. So we've been operating for quite a while now. We have clients all
01:27around the world, staff all around the world, and we've got a five-star standard that we've
01:32maintained with clients all throughout.
01:35And then Jake, I know you guys refer to yourselves as the world's leading crypto brokerage. So
01:40what does make Caleb and Brown the world's leading crypto brokerage?
01:43Yeah, so we pioneered this business model in reality. So in 2016, when it all started
01:49out, there were very few exchanges. We're talking an era of the cryptocurrency market
01:54where only a few years or maybe even a year or two earlier, most people would be buying
01:58Bitcoin meeting up at a Starbucks through local Bitcoins or something of that sort.
02:03There weren't that many options for people to get involved in the industry. And a lot
02:06of those options at the time, they weren't anywhere near the scale they are now, which
02:11means things like consumer protection, being able to have a regulated, reliable service
02:16that you use. They were issues the industry really had in 2016.
02:21What we did was as we grew and grew over the years, we really took pride in pioneering
02:26the brokerage model for the cryptocurrency space.
02:28Now, different services work well for different investors.
02:32Some people only want to use DeFi protocols for their investing.
02:36Some people might have a particular exchange they've had a great experience with.
02:39What we're trying to do is offer a new way that people can be empowered in the space
02:44through a hands-on, dedicated brokerage model where you can actually speak to the people
02:48you're working with 24-7, Christmas Day, whatever it is that you desire.
02:52So that means if you've got a complicated trade that you're looking to do, maybe you
02:56want to trade using a corporate structure which is very involved.
03:00You're worried about withdrawal maximums.
03:02You're worried about, can I swap this ambiguous altcoin into this other ambiguous altcoin?
03:07All of these questions some people have, a brokerage model can resolve.
03:12So I guess what makes us the world's leading brokerage model is we really are the first
03:16ones to do that, to the best of our knowledge.
03:18And to date, we have never found another brokerage that services cryptocurrency on a 24-7
03:24basis to the scale that we do with the volumes that we trade.
03:28And then, Jake, you say you have intellectual rigor at the center of everything you do.
03:32What does that mean practically?
03:35I'm wondering who in the business use intellectual rigor specifically.
03:40But look, what I would say to that is we are a business that started to help friends, family,
03:46people in our local community get engaged and invested within the cryptocurrency space.
03:50We've kept that ethos as we have scaled the business through tens and tens of thousands
03:54of customers and billions of dollars of transactional volume.
03:58Now with intellectual rigor, what we really mean by that is every element of our service
04:05is absolutely overkilled.
04:07So everything from purchasing Bitcoin all the way through to a stop-limit order in an
04:13offshore entity paired against the euro, etc., etc., the most complicated and the most simple
04:20trades are all overkilled in every step of the way.
04:23We want to get the best pricing.
04:24We want to account for foreign exchange.
04:26We want to make sure that custody is completely in line.
04:29We want to make sure that the client's security measures that are in place are tailored to
04:33what they like and what works best for them.
04:36Every single element of the customer experience, whether it's dealing with their broker, whether
04:40it's withdrawing coins, or whether it's navigating the trade opportunities that we can help empower
04:45them with, every single step of the way involves an overkilled approach of customer support
04:52and dedication.
04:53And we don't release a new product unless it's been trialed and tested 10 times more
04:58than what it realistically ought to be.
05:00What security and risk management systems do you have in place?
05:03Sure.
05:04So we've taken the approach as a brokerage with an exchange, and don't get me wrong,
05:08exchanges are fantastic, and there's so many great automated solutions out there.
05:12DeFi protocols, some of the greatest businesses in the space, in my opinion, fall into that
05:16category.
05:17What we've found, though, is we want to find that balance between technology and human
05:22experience.
05:23Now, what does that mean in terms of security specifically?
05:26Well, we know that if you have a service in cryptocurrency which depends too much on the
05:30human element, you run the risk of human error, someone's going to fat finger a withdrawal.
05:36We've all heard these horror stories before.
05:39And of course, in this day and age, social engineering, scams are much more advanced
05:43than what they used to be, and they're running rampant, particularly in this bull market.
05:47So what we want to do is we want to use all the most advanced technological solutions,
05:51whether they're built internally or whether it's through an external partnership, such
05:55as Fireblocks on the custody end, by way of example.
05:59So we want to make sure we capture all the technological benefits that we can to empower
06:03client security and do that at an industrial level.
06:06A lot of retail services, you've got to cut costs.
06:10You're not able to provide the greatest service necessary if your clients are doing very modest
06:16trades.
06:17Whereas if you're trading at an institutional level, of course, you're going to get a different
06:20experience.
06:21Our job is to get the security standards off those higher, larger money market transactions
06:26and bring them to a retail level.
06:28But then whilst doing that, we also want to empower the human element because technology
06:33is great.
06:34Automation is fantastic, but we don't want to depend entirely on it because humans can
06:39still make error whilst navigating this technology.
06:42So on a client end, we want to be able to use a human service that we can customize
06:46a security end.
06:47Do you want your account frozen until you come to our office and meet us in real life
06:51and re-KYC yourself?
06:53They're the kind of steps that we can put in place, which are very unique to only a
06:57brokerage solution.
06:59Got it.
07:00That makes sense.
07:01And then Jake, what is the most important thing someone investing in the crypto space
07:04needs to know?
07:05That's a good question.
07:06I think in my experience, being in the industry for a very long time now, I would say that
07:11if an investor or a customer fails to plan, then they're effectively planning to fail.
07:17I don't know if I've got that quote exactly right or 100% accurate, but you get the sentiment
07:22there.
07:23Cryptocurrency is a 24-7 market.
07:25A 10% movement is a drop in the ocean for a seasoned crypto investor.
07:29With that being said, it's really critical that if you're investing in the market that
07:33you do have an exit strategy.
07:36And half the reason we opt for a brokerage is because we can help develop that with customers.
07:40Do you want to use a stop limit when certain price points are reached for the coins that
07:44you're holding?
07:45Do you have your target prices in mind for when you want to take some profit?
07:49Do you want a dollar cost average when the market is sideways and you want to gradually
07:52enter your position?
07:53All of these things, in my opinion, if you fail to have these conversations, at least
07:58with yourself, let alone with a broker or someone trusted in the industry, then you
08:02really are leaving yourself out like a feather in the wind, hoping that the market works
08:07in your favor.
08:08And long and behold, you will sound like a genius in a bull market because your strategy
08:13of having no strategy is working when everything goes up every day.
08:16But the second you get humbled by a 30% leg down and then another leg down a week or a
08:21month later, and then one day you realize you're in a bear market and you're thinking,
08:25damn, if only I had a strategy, I could have really come out on top here.
08:29That would be my bit of go to advice.
08:32It's certainly we certainly practice what we preach there.
08:34Yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
08:36And then last question here before we wrap up, how has the approval of Bitcoin ETFs changed
08:42the industry?
08:43Yeah, so I think the approval of Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year, the most obvious impact
08:49it had was that it caused a huge inflow of capital into the market, which consequentially
08:54supply demand principles have allowed the price of Bitcoin to just increase.
08:59Now, that's obviously a driving force of momentum.
09:02And that narrative has given so much more legitimacy to Bitcoin, which, again, brings
09:05in more and more interest into the market.
09:08Now, to date, it's really outside of Solana and Ethereum.
09:12We haven't really seen a major, major cryptocurrency increase in price anywhere near the degree
09:19Bitcoin has.
09:20Of course, you have the meme coin market and various altcoins that are anomalies.
09:24But largely speaking, the Bitcoin ETF has brought in a lot more trust and investor conviction
09:30into what the future of Bitcoin might be.
09:32Now, from this point forward, we are seeing those kind of conversations circulating.
09:36Ethereum, of course, Ethereum is also now in the world of ETF support.
09:40What that means for the market as we move forward is really anyone's guess, but I think
09:44a really fair approach would be that with more money empowered to come into the market,
09:49we can safely suggest that cryptocurrency has reached a new leg in its story of legitimization
09:55and, in turn, price discovery.
09:57Yeah, it's been great to see that adoption in the industry and see it, as you said, get
10:01a little bit more legitimized between institutional investors.
10:05Well, Jake, this has been a great conversation.
10:08Again, we've been on the line with Jake Boyle over at Caleb and Brown.
10:12Make sure to check out their crypto brokerage.
10:13And Jake, once again, thank you for joining us at Benzinga.
10:16Thank you so much.
10:17It's been a pleasure.
10:18Cheers.
10:19Cheers.