Major Australian Exchange Expands Trading Services to Singapore
- Independent Reserve has confirmed that Singaporean dollar trading pairs will soon be added to the new platform.
- Founded in 2013, the exchange claims to have over 120,000 customers, and more than 8,000 Self Managed Super Funds.
Independent Reserve core team, from left, shareholder and advisor Jiwa Nadan, founder and CEO Adrian Przelozny, and CTO Roman Stefanidi. 61-Bit
One of Australia’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, the Independent Reserve, will be expanding its services to Singapore, the firm said in a press release on 24 January.
According to the announcement, Singapore residents can now use the exchange’s platform to buy, trade and hold digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, and other. The company has also confirmed that Singaporean dollar trading pairs will be added to the platform, which will operate as a separate entity from the Australian-based platform.
Founded in 2013, the Independent Reserve offers a number of retail and institutional trading features, including over the counter (OTC) service and a spot marketplace. The exchange further claims to have more than 120,000 customers, and around 8,000 Self Managed Super Funds (SMSFs).
Back in February 2019, the exchange also introduced insurance coverage for digital assets held in clients’ accounts.
According to Adrian Przelozny, CEO and founder of Independent Reserve, one of the main factors that influenced this decision was the Payment Services Act, which was introduced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank and financial regulator. This legal framework effectively brought all cryptocurrency payments providers under the jurisdiction of MAS. Przelozny said in Friday’s announcement:
“Following a number of positive moves by Singaporean regulators, including the introduction of the Payments Services Act by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), we felt the time was right to make this move. Having worked closely with Australian regulators, and as the only Australian exchange to have insurance on crypto assets, the response we’ve received so far from the Singapore market has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Independent Reserve is not the only crypto exchange to expand its services to Singapore. Last year, one of the largest exchanges in the world, Binance, opened a new fiat-to-crypto exchange in the country.
- The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has filed a lawsuit against trading platform eToro over its contract for difference (CFD) product.
- The regulator claimed the product’s target market was too broad, and that eToro used insufficient screening tests when offering the leveraged derivative contracts to retail users.
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- Anonymous sources have said that the offices of Binance Australia were searched on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into the exchange’s derivatives operations.
- Australia’s financial regulator, who conducted the reported search, canceled Binance Australia’s derivatives license back in April, and the exchange no longer offers the service in the country.
- The requirement to deposit customer assets into a statutory trust comes as a result of a MAS public consultation from October 2022 focused on reducing risk in crypto trading.
- Singapore’s central bank also restricted crypto firms from facilitating lending and staking to retail customers, though the services are still available to institutional clients.