Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx has confirmed Andrea Yuen as its chief executive officer, the Brisbane based company announced on 3 September 2026. Yuen had been serving as acting co-chief executive and chief financial officer since January 2025, working alongside Swyftx co-founder and director Alex Harper. Following the announcement, Harper stepped down from the acting co-chief executive role to resume his duties as an executive director on the board.
Yuen brings 30 years of experience across the financial services sector in Singapore and Australia. Before joining Swyftx she held executive roles at PwC for more than nine years, and prior to that served as managing director at Lazard between 2006 and 2015. Earlier in her career she worked at Icon Partners, IRG Limited and Lehman Brothers in various capacities.
A platform moving beyond crypto trading
Swyftx chair Cathryn Lyall said the board's decision reflected Yuen's performance over the past several months. Lyall said the market was changing quickly with the advent of all in one investment apps, and that Swyftx was no longer a crypto asset only platform. She said Yuen's background in leadership roles across different Asia Pacific financial centres made her an ideal candidate to lead the business into this new era.
Yuen said she was looking forward to leading Swyftx through the next stage of its journey as a regulated platform. She said the past year had been quiet for the global crypto market and the company had deliberately used the period to build, securing its Australian financial services licence and launching leverage trading and loans. She said her focus was now on the team and on maximising the potential of Swyftx, which she described as enormous, adding that the company expected to become one of the country's largest fintechs within a few years by using blockchain technology to compete with more traditional platforms in areas such as investing and payments.
Company background
Swyftx serves more than a million retail, business and self managed superannuation fund customers across Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The company was granted an Australian financial services licence by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in July 2026 and launched licensed leverage trading the same month. Over the past two years Swyftx has completed two major acquisitions, taking over New Zealand based exchange Easy Crypto for 32.9 million Australian dollars in March 2025 and United States focused broker Caleb and Brown for 100 million Australian dollars in October 2025.
Yuen and Harper moved into the acting co-chief executive roles in April 2026, when Swyftx's board replaced then chief executive Jason Titman. The leadership change at the time was accompanied by a restructuring of the business that affected approximately 15 per cent of staff.
