About Us

Our Mission

To be APAC's most trusted cryptocurrency exchange.

Our story

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. Moreover, we aimed to transform cryptocurrency technology into secure, robust and regulated financial services, and do things the right way.

We have grown to and serve over 250,000 Australian, New Zealand and global customers, and we are trusted by thousands of Self-Managed Super Funds.

Since our launch, we have built a world-class orderbook exchange and OTC service desk, expanded operations to South-East Asia and continue to build new features and partnerships that add value to our customers.

We pride ourselves on offering world-class security for our customers, featuring 2-factor authentication, ISO 27001 certification and top-tier underground vaults used to protect your crypto.

9+

Years in business
SMSFs

Trusted by thousands of SMSFs
250,000+

Australia & New Zealand users

Our governance

Independent Reserve is a registered Australian company (ABN 46 164 257 069), underpinned by Australia's highly regulated financial sector. We are registered as a Digital Currency Exchange (DCE) with AUSTRAC: DCE-100461150-001.

Our board of directors, advisers and management team bring decades of experience in regulation, traditional finance, risk management and IT security.

Our professional board of directors

Adrian Przelozny

CEO & Managing Director

Co-founder of Independent Reserve, Adrian’s career spans more than 15 years of information technology, specializing in the design and development of critical business systems.
Lasanka Perera

COO & Executive Director

Co-founder of Independent Reserve, Lasanka has spent over 10 years building regulated financial markets and trading businesses' across multiple asset classes.
Roman Stefanidi

CTO & Executive director

Roman has spent over fifteen years developing enterprise-level pricing and trading software for financial institutions.
Rachel Cobb

Non-executive director

Rachel has over 15 years experience leading financial services businesses with deep expertise in strategy and risk management. Rachel was formerly a Managing Director in GE Consumer Finance.
John Wigglesworth

Non-executive director

After a 36 year career at KPMG, John has joined Independent Reserve's board and chairs the Audit Committee. He brings over 30 years of professional experience working with leading Australian and global companies, with specific expertise in finance reporting, control, governance and risk.
Dr Michael Aitken AM

Non-executive director

A leading expert on market surveillance and currently the Chief Scientist at Rozetta institute. He was formerly the CEO at Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre.

How we treat client assets

No commingling of customer funds: We keep client assets completely separate from our own.

1:1 reserves

We keep 1-to-1 reserves of all client fiat and crypto assets. We hold the vast majority of crypto assets in secure offline cold storage, protected in underground vaults with maximum security.

Audited

Our books are balanced and we carry no debt on our balance sheet. We never lend out client assets. We engage external auditors each year to undertake an annual audit of our financial statements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards. The audit includes verification of all fiat and cryptocurrency balances held in custody on behalf of clients.

Segregated funds

We maintain complete segregation of our customers’ crypto and fiat assets. We ensure that your funds are kept safe so that when you need to make a withdrawal, you can. That is our promise.

Learn about our security

Awards and Recognition

Digital Currency Exchange of the Year 2019-2021
Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Australia
Financial Review Fast 100
AFR Most Innovative Companies
Financial Times High Growth Companies 2020

Our Security

The Independent Reserve core servers are securely located at two Tier 3 data centres in Sydney, Australia. This allows us to synchronously replicate all data across both locations in real-time. This ensures zero data loss should one site have an outage.

We also have a fully functional back up of our production environment should the need arise.

Our customers’ privacy and personal data is important to us and we ensure that all your personal information is protected. All our data is signed and encrypted multiple times using geographically dispersed keys, spread across four data centres; ensuring your personal information is always secure.

Read more about our security practices here.

Cryptocurrencies are what is known as ‘bearer instruments’, meaning that whoever is the bearer (holder) of the private key for the digital asset is the owner. It is therefore imperative that the private keys are kept secure.

Independent Reserve employs ‘Cold Storage’ to store the vast majority of digital assets. Our Cold Storage is secured by multi-layer encryption and kept on offline digital hardware storage devices. The hardware is stored in physical vaults in geographically diverse locations.

Each vault is secured by multiple levels of physical security as well as requiring biometric authentication of all persons accessing the vaults.

By using offline, multi-layer encryption in physical vaults, Independent Reserve is employing best in class security for your digital assets.

Read more about our security practices here.

You have trusted Independent Reserve to be your cryptocurrency trading exchange; and we take that trust and responsibility very seriously. There is nothing more important to us than ensuring your digital assets remain secure and available to you at all times.

Read more about our security practices here.

Partnerships

Bloomberg

Only source of Bitcoin/AUD pricing on Bloomberg, streamed live to all Bloomberg terminal holders worldwide.
Blockchain Australia

Certified and audited member of Blockchain Australia, with the aim to encourage the responsible adoption of blockchain technology by industry and governments across Australia.
Iress

Independent Reserve Bitcoin and crypto prices data integrated onto the Iress platform.
BGL

To simplify Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) adoption of cryptocurrency.

The people’s money - bitcoin

Written by Adam Tepper, the book “The People’s Money - Bitcoin” explains the concepts behind Bitcoin in an approachable and easy to understand way. By the end of the book you will have a solid understanding of this revolutionary new technology and the vast potential that it brings.

Sadly, Adam passed away before he could complete the book, and it was completed thanks to the Bitcoin Association of Australia (now Blockchain Australia) along with amazing help from the greater Bitcoin community.

Free download

Culture and Community

We all play a role in making the world and our community a better place. As one of the largest and leading cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, we understand that we have a responsibility to the community.

Going Green

In 2019 we made a commitment to help offset the carbon emissions caused by our business and the industry. Through Climeworks, a Swiss-based firm dedicated to capturing CO2 from the air with its cutting-edge technology, we’re removing 1 tonne of carbon per year. Moreover, we’ve joined the 1 Trillion Tree foundation and are planting 200 trees every year.
Community

The Independent Reserve team sponsors and participates in dozens of Australia’s local blockchain and cryptocurrency meetups, events and conferences. Our team travelled across Australia as part of the Blockchain Australia Roadshow to answer community questions, we sponsored the launch of the Cryptopia movie and much more.
Government and Regulation

Our CEO Adrian Przelozny is a board member of Blockchain Australia. He has contributed to the Australian Blockchain Roadmap, provided arguments against the cash ban and provides thought leadership to other Government bodies.
Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index

In 2019 we launched the Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI), an annual cross-sectional survey of Australians to examine Australia's awareness, adoption, trust and confidence in cryptocurrency. The survey provides researchers, industry, media and the general public - valuable data and insights into the blockchain industry.

IR Ventures

Launched in 2018 the IR Ventures blockchain innovation hub and coworking space, provides an abundance of support and opportunities for tenants and the community. IR Ventures provides mentorship and access to resources through partners with Amazon Web Services, Piper Alderman, Entersoft and Vibe Hotels. The space is also used to host blockchain events and meetups.

Visit IR Ventures

IR Ventures Partners

Newsroom

Independent Reserve has provided commentary, interviews and stories for hundreds of global and local publications, including CoinTelegraph, Nuggets News, Digital Finance Analytics, Australian Financial Review, News.com, Channel 7, Channel 9 and the ABC.