About Us

Our Mission

To be APAC's most trusted cryptocurrency exchange.

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 data and crypto.

  • 10+
    Years in business
  • SMSFs
    Trusted by thousands of SMSFs
  • 250,000+
    Trusted users worldwide

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.

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.
    Adrian Przelozny
  • Lasanka Perera

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

    CTO & Executive director
    Roman has spent over fifteen years developing enterprise-level pricing and trading software for financial institutions.
    Roman Stefanidi
  • 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 and now serves on several boards including Commonwealth Securities Limited (CommSec). Rachel is chair of the Remuneration Committee.
    Rachel Cobb
  • 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.
    John Wigglesworth
  • 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. Michael is chair of the Risk Committee.
    Dr Michael Aitken AM

Protecting your assets is our top priority

No commingling of customer funds: we keep client assets completely separate from our own.
1:1 reserves

1:1 reserves

We maintain a full 1:1 reserve 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

Audited

Our books are balanced and we carry no debt on our balance sheet. We engage external auditors to undertake an annual audit of our financial statements in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards. This includes verification of all fiat and crypto balances held in custody on behalf of clients.

Segregated funds

Segregated funds

We maintain complete segregation of all client assets to ensure that when you need to make a withdrawal you can. We keep your assets safe. That is our promise.

Sole custodian

Sole custodian

Independent Reserve is a sole custodian of all crypto assets held on our platform. Custody is managed in Australia and we do not use any third party custodians.

We adhere to industry best practices and never lend, trade or reinvest your assets.

  • Digital Currency Exchange of the Year 2019-2021

    Digital Currency Exchange of the Year 2019-2021

  • Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Australia

    Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Australia

  • Financial Review Fast 100

    Financial Review Fast 100

  • AFR Most Innovative Companies

    AFR Most Innovative Companies

  • Financial Times High Growth Companies 2020

    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.

Partnerships

  • KPMG tax calculator

    KPMG tax calculator

    The crypto tax estimator developed by KPMG is a digital tool that plugs directly into Independent Reserve’s user interface, allowing traders to estimate tax obligations.
  • Bloomberg

    Bloomberg

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

    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

    Iress

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

    BGL

    To simplify Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF) adoption of cryptocurrency.
The People’s Money Bitcoin - Adam Tepper

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.

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

    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

    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

    Government and Regulation

    Our CEO Adrian Przelozny is a former 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

    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.

IR Ventures Partners

  • AWS Activate
  • Piper Alderman
  • Entersoft
  • Vibe Hotels
  • Vibe Hotels

Independent Reserve Pty. Ltd.

Level 26, 44 Market Street
Sydney, 2000
New South Wales, Australia