Independent Reserve

Independent Reserve is a centralized exchange for buying, selling and holding crypto against Australian, New Zealand, Singapore and US dollars. Its about page names three founders from 2013: Adrian Przelozny, now Group CEO, Lasanka Perera, now CEO of the Singapore business, and Adam Tepper, who has since died. The Australian operating company is Independent Reserve Pty. Ltd., ABN 46 164 257 069, with its office at Level 26, 44 Market Street in Sydney.

Since 30 January 2026 the exchange has been part of IG Group, the London-listed trading company. IG announced the deal in September 2025 and completed it after the Monetary Authority of Singapore approved the change of control. Independent Reserve's own announcement does not give the price or stake. According to Trade Informer, IG bought an initial 70% and holds a call option on the remaining 30%, still owned by management and staff, exercisable on results for fiscal 2027 and 2028. Przelozny stayed on as CEO, and IG says it plans its own crypto offering for clients in Singapore, Australia and the UAE built on Independent Reserve's technology.

The company reports more than 550,000 customers and says thousands of self-managed super funds use it. Neither figure is dated or audited.

Each market is run under a separate local permission, and each covers only that market.

• Australia: Independent Reserve Pty. Ltd. is registered with AUSTRAC as a digital currency exchange (DCE-100461150-001). Registration covers anti-money-laundering obligations; it is not a financial services licence and does not protect balances.
• Singapore: Independent Reserve SG Pte. Ltd., at 6 Shenton Way, holds a Major Payment Institution licence (PS20200517) from MAS. The MAS directory lists digital payment token, account issuance, and domestic and cross-border money transfer services. The licence was granted on 1 October 2021, after in-principle approval in August.
• New Zealand: the exchange serves New Zealanders with NZD deposits and withdrawals. We did not identify the New Zealand registration from its own pages.
• Other countries: the getting-started guide lists several dozen countries where it can usually verify customers, including the UK, Canada, Japan and several EU states. The United States is not listed, and approval is case by case. Independent Reserve does not appear in ESMA's register of MiCA-authorised providers, so EU residents are not served under a MiCA licence.

Trading costs between 0.50% and 0.02% of each order, on a sliding scale tied to the previous 30 days of volume. The fee page does not set out the volume brackets, so a new customer should assume the top rate. Trades above $50,000 can go through the OTC desk instead of the order book; OTC pricing is quoted per trade and not published.

The table shows the Australian fee schedule as of October 2026. Crypto withdrawal fees are fixed per asset rather than passed through at cost, so they can be higher or lower than the actual network fee on a given day. For how fees, spread and slippage add up on a real order, see what a $10,000 trade really costs.

Individuals, companies, trusts, self-managed super funds and institutions can open accounts. Verification asks for name, date of birth and address, checked against national databases and anti-money-laundering lists, plus a mobile number and two-factor authentication. Australian residents opening a personal account may get instant access; companies, trusts, SMSFs and overseas residents go through extra steps.

The SMSF account is the product Independent Reserve is best known for in Australia. It must be separate from any personal account, and the fund's trust deed has to permit crypto investment. Opening one requires the deed, the fund's ABN and trustee details. Withdrawals go only to a verified address controlled by the fund, which the company links to the Travel Rule. Reports export to Summ (formerly Crypto Tax Calculator), Koinly and other tax tools.

Beyond spot trading, the platform offers recurring purchases (AutoTrader), limit and stop orders, an API, the OTC desk and leveraged trading. Leveraged positions accrue interest of 0.05% a day on buys and 0.03% a day on sells, and a forced liquidation costs 1% of the loan, as of October 2026. In Singapore it also sells stablecoin and fiat payment services to businesses.

Independent Reserve has no publicly reported hack, insolvency or regulatory enforcement action that we found in AUSTRAC, MAS and news searches in October 2026. The company states that it holds client fiat and crypto 1:1, carries no debt, does not commingle customer funds, and stores most client crypto in cold storage with an insured, enterprise-grade qualified custodian. In Singapore, client fiat is held with DBS. It also cites ISO 27001 certification and core servers in two Sydney data centres.

Those are company statements. The custodian and insurer are not named, and the cover limits are not published. The annual external audit under Australian accounting standards, which the company says includes verification of client balances, is not released to customers and its auditor is not named. There is no Merkle-tree proof of reserves or on-chain wallet list. That leaves a customer relying on the company's word and its regulators, which is weaker evidence than a published liabilities check; our guide on checking whether an exchange holds your money explains the difference.

For how this record sits next to other exchanges, see our exchange comparison.

AUD withdrawals by EFT are free and PayID transfers arrive instantly for AUD 1.50. Crypto withdrawals carry the fixed per-asset fee above. A withdrawal that needs manual processing costs AUD 20. If an account may be compromised, the contact page has a form that locks the account immediately; doing so delays any withdrawal until support restores access.

Support is by email at [email protected], which the company says usually answers within one business day, alongside a help centre and a 24/7 support feature for account holders. No phone number is published on the contact page. Official social accounts are on X (@indepreserve), LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, all linked from the site's footer.

Independent Reserve grew from a Sydney start-up into a regulated regional exchange before being bought by a listed broker.

• 2013: founded in Sydney.
• August 2021: in-principle approval from MAS for a Major Payment Institution licence.
• October 2021: full MAS licence granted.
• December 2024: lists Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin for Singapore customers from 22 December, against SGD and USD on the order book and OTC desk.
• September 2025: IG Group announces the acquisition.
• 30 January 2026: acquisition completed after MAS approval.