Independent Reserve

Company

Helping you securely buy, sell and trade crypto since 2013.

Founded in 2013 by Adam Tepper and Adrian Przelozny, Independent Reserve’s vision was to build Australia’s most secure and trusted way to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Independent Reserve celebrates its 10th anniversary in June 2023. Check out the open letter from group CEO, Adrian Przelozny, who reflects on the journey so far and shares insights into the company’s values, achievements, and future aspirations.

Awards

• ‘Digital Currency Exchange of the Year’ (for the second time in a row) @ Blockchain Australia’s The Blockies awards 2021
• ‘Blockchain Organisation of the Year’ @ Blockchain Australia’s The Blockies awards 2021

Business model

Shared via email from Adrian Przelozny (CEO and Co-founder) on 17 Nov 2022:

• Independent Reserve is a pure orderbook exchange, which provides a platform for investors to trade cryptocurrency amongst each other. Revenue comes from charging a small fee on each trade.
• Independent Reserve will never lend, trade, use or reinvest your assets without your knowledge.

Key metrics

• Over 250,000 customers [Jun 2022]
• 60+ staff [Jun 2022]
• more than $1 billion dollars worth of assets under custody [Jun 2022]

Notable Developments

• Co-founder Lasanka Perera as CEO for Singapore [Feb 2023]
  • Perera will retain his role as group chief operating officer (COO)

Presence in Singapore

• Entity: Independent Reserve SG PTE. LTD (UEN 201942383Z)

• Location: #17-00, 16 Collyer Quay, Singapore 049318

Regulation by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

• Major Payment Institution Licence No. PS20200517
  • Provision of Domestic Money Transfer
  • Cross-border Money Transfer
  • Account Issuance
  • Digital Payment Token services

Travel Rule: External crypto addresses must be verified

Due to the Payment Services Act (PSA) licensing requirements from MAS, Independent Reserve must observe the Travel Rule and verify any external crypto address that customers make a withdrawal to or receive a deposit from to ensure that they have full control of the address.

If transferring to a personal wallet or a platform that does not support IVMS 101, this Independent Reserve blog article discusses how to verify the addresses.

Transparency

Assurances shared via email from Adrian Przelozny (CEO and Co-founder) on 17 Nov 2022. Independent Reserve:

• has never engaged in any lending, borrowing or rehypothecation activities (i.e. pledging assets as collateral for debt).
• maintains sufficient liquidity of customers' assets to meet obligations.
• segregates all customer assets (in both fiat currency and crypto) from proprietary assets.
• has no debt on balance sheet.
• maintains 1:1 reserves of all client assets.
• stores the majority of client assets in offline cold storage vaults.
• has undergone an external audit in Singapore as required by MAS. The audit includes an independent assessment of the controls and compliance pertaining to our treatment of client assets in both fiat currency and crypto.
• has voluntarily undergone multiple financial audits in Australia.
• is ISO 27001 certified as assurance of processes and security protocols.

Currently, Independent Reserve is working on producing a Proof of Reserves (PoR), that ensures Independent Reserve holds the assets they claim to hold on behalf of clients.

Ecosystem

Trading platforms

• Android (launched in Oct 2021)
• iOS (launched in Oct 2021)
• Web

✔️ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Instantly deposit SGD for free using PayNow

Independent Reserve announced in December 2023 that users can now instantly deposit SGD for free using PayNow.

Reasons to use PayNow as deposit method:

• Zero fees
• Effortless QR code scanning
• Reduce bank transfer errors

Licensed by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

[3 Aug 2021] The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has granted an “in-principle approval” under the Payment Services Act to cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, allowing it to operate as a regulated provider for digital payment token services.

It is one of the first virtual asset service providers to obtain an in-principle approval letter for a Major Payment Institution Licence in Singapore, according to a statement from the company.

“To be one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to be notified by MAS of our in-principle licensing approval is a reflection of the robustness of the policies, procedures and risk management systems that we have put in place to guide our day-to-day operations,” Independent Reserve’s chief executive Adrian Przelozny said in the statement. “It provides certainty for us as industry participants and security for our customers."

Usage Notes

FAST support with low fiat deposit and withdrawal fees

A more seamless way to deposit and withdraw funds

Independent Reserve supports the FAST network to execute fund deposits and withdrawals in minutes.

Deposits:

• Free and instant deposits when you deposit S$1,000 and above.
• daily deposit limit of $50,000. Clients can message Support to increase their daily limit.

Withdrawals:

• flat fee of S$1.50 for each SGD withdrawal via FAST.
• daily withdrawal limit is S$100,000.

Learn how to deposit SGD via FAST transfer. View all fees.