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Independent Reserve Review Australia

Last Updated: Aug 13, 2022  |  Published: Sep 5, 2021


This post may contain affiliate links. Learn more.

Our Review

Independent Reserve has 25+ coins, a 1.68% total fee to buy Bitcoin (9th place) and a good reputation and security serving Australians since 2013.

Overall, Independent Reserve is not the best option for Australians right now. We reviewed over 15 crypto exchanges and found several alternatives with lower prices, more coins and more features on the market right now.

Independent Reserve

2.8/5

🏆 Overall

Better options available

💰 Fees

Above Average

📲 Features

Below Average

🇦🇺Deposit & Withdrawals

Average

👍 Ease Of Use

Average

🔒 Security

Above Average

Where It Shines:

  • Good Reputation & Security: Founded in 2013 and has been open longer than most competitors. It's never been hacked and offers many security features 

Where It Falls Short:

  • Higher Fees & Spreads: 1.68% total fee to buy Bitcoin (9th place) and 2.13% spread (12th place) when tested
  • Limited Features & Coins: Only 25+ coins and limited features compared to competitors who have 100's of coins and more features

Best Alternatives

Swyftx
  • Best overall in Australia and lower fees 
  • 280+ coins, staking, bundles
  • Beginner-friendly
  • Limited pro tools
  • Low app reviews
  • Most features for Australians
  • 500+ coins, margin, futures, rewards and more
  • Limited KYC 
  • Expensive to fund AUD and can't Cashout AUD
  • Not licensed or regulated
Digital Surge
  • Best overall for beginners
  • 270+ coins
  • Fair pricing across the board
  • Limited features overall
  • Lack of professional tools

Overview

Updated: Sep 5, 2021

📲 Features

Header

🔐 Security

Header

Coins

Mobile App

Web App

Beginner Friendly?

Pro Trading Terminal

Limit Orders

Recurring Buys

Bundles

Staking

Margin

Futures

OTC

24/7 Support

25+

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

App 2FA

Uses Cold Storage?

AUSTRAC Regulated?

Any Hacks or Incidents?

Insurance Policy

View Login History

Address Whitelisting

Crypto Withdrawals Allowed

Year Founded

Publicly Traded?

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

?

Yes

Yes

2013

No

💰 Fees

0.0/5

🏦 Deposits & Withdrawals

0.0/5

$100 Buy After All Fees

$100 Sell After All Fees

Best Deposit Fee

Best Withdrawal Fee

Trading Fee

BTC Spread (Dec 17, 21)

BTC Withdrawal Fee

ETH Withdrawal Fee

$98.32

$98.57

Free

Free

0.50%

2.13%

0.0003 BTC

?

AUD Fiat Wallet?

Direct Bank Transfer

POLi

PAYid

Credit/Debit

BPay

Other Fiat Currencies

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

  • Total fees and spread was tested Dec 17, 2021 and is subject to change

Independent Reserve Compared

We are tracking the 15+ most popular Australian crypto exchanges. Compare the entire industry below:

Coins

Total Purchase Fee

Trading Fees

$AUD Deposits

Beginner Friendly

Advanced Features

Website

600+

0.15%

0.10%

Yes

No

Yes

18

1.24%

0.85%

Yes

No

Yes

110+

4.50%

2.90%*

No

Yes

No

50+

1.09%

0% - 2.00%

Yes

Yes

Yes

30+

0.14% + $50

0.10%

Yes

Yes

Yes

370+

1.89%

0.10% - 1%

Yes

Yes

Yes

280+

2.36%

0.05% - 0.9%

Yes

Yes

No

150+

1.30%

0.00%

Yes

Yes

Yes

270+

1.04%

0.50%

Yes

Yes

Yes

150+

1.45%

1.00%

Yes

Yes

No

30

-

0%

Yes

Yes

Yes

27+

1.68%

0.50%

Yes

Yes

Yes

50+

0.43%

0.16% / 0.26%

Yes

Yes

Yes

700+

2.23%

0.10%

Yes

No

Yes

270+

0.41%

0.08% - 0.1%

No

No

Yes

320+

0.95%

0.60%

Yes

Yes

Yes


Screenshots

Updated: Sep 5, 2021

  • Desktop

  • App


Independent Reserve

About Independent Reserve

Independent Reserve is one of Australia's oldest crypto exchanges. They were founded in 2013 and have their headquarters in Sydney. Their goal according to the website is to, "build Australia's most secure and trusted way to buy Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies."

They have a strong focus on security, 27 coins you can trade and over 200k customers in Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia. In this review, we'll cover the ins and outs of the platform. 

Company Stats

  • 200,000+ Australia and New Zealand users
  • Founded in 2013
  • 4 fiat currencies (AUD, USD, NZD, SGD)

Are They Legit?

Yes, Independent Reserve is an AUSTRAC regulated company and a registered Digital Currency Exchange (DCE) in the country of Australia. They also have a strong focus on security.


Verification

Updated: Sep 5, 2021

Application Time

10 minutes or less

KYC Verification

Yes

Instant Verification

Yes

Manual Verification

1-2 business days

Sign Up Requirements 

  • Name, address, date of birth
  • Phone number
  • Enter your source of funds and purpose for opening account
  • Upload selfie holding government-issued ID
  • Upload picture of government-issued ID
  • Upload proof of address (eg. bank statement, utility bill, etc)

Independent Reserve has a very strict application process. By law, they must verify your identity so have your documents ready. The entire application can take 5-10 minutes before you're ready to start trading.


Security

Updated: Sep 5, 2021

Can You Trust Independent Reserve?

Independent Reserve is considered a safe crypto exchange and offers more security features than most platforms. They're a regulated Australian company, they offer many security settings like 2FA and they have never been hacked or lost users funds. They've also been operating since 2013 which is a long track record in the crypto industry.

They are considered trustworthy however, it's important to keep in mind no crypto exchange is 100% safe. There is always a small risk of getting hacked, pulling an exit scam and more.

The safest way to store your crypto is by owning your private keys. For large amounts of crypto or long term holdings, we recommend getting a hardware wallet for secure offline storage.

Company Security Features

  • Registered and regulated AUSTRAC company
  • Users funds are held in offline storage (they don't say how much)
  • Their hardware wallets are geographically distributed, guarded by security and stored in vaults. Requires biometric authentication to access
  • Multiple data servers in different locations
  • Messages are encrypted when speaking with customer support and automatically monitored for suspicious activity
  • See the rest here

User Security Features

  • 2 Factor Authentication (via Google authenticator or phone number)
  • Optional Duress Password (a second password that will immediately suspend your account for 24 hours if used)
  • Browser and device whitelisting
  • View login history
  • Turn on/off Email PGP Signing (verify that you're getting authentic emails)
  • Insure your crypto up to $5m AUD (paid feature)

Other Security Notes

  • Founded way back in 2013 (which is a long time in the crypto world)
  • Experienced advisory board and executive team
  • Good reputation overall

Deposit & Withdrawals

Updated: Feb 17, 2022

AUD Deposit Methods

Type

Fee

Time

Limits

PayID/Osko

Free (deposits over $1,000)

$2.50 (deposits under $1,000)

Near Instant

$20,000 per 24 hours

Direct Bank Transfer

Free (deposits over $100)

$0.99 (deposits under $100

1-2 days

?

AUD Withdrawal Methods

Type

Fee

Time

Limits

PayID/Osko

$1.50

?

?

Direct Bank Transfer

Free

0-1 days

?

Crypto Withdrawal Fees

Coin

Fee

Minimum Withdrawal

Bitcoin

0.0003 BTC

0.0001 BTC

Ethereum

0.006 ETH

0.01 ETH


Independent Reserve Fees & Spread

Updated: Feb 16, 2022

Fee Type

Amount

Trading Fee

Up to 0.50%

AUD Deposits

Free - $2.50

AUD Withdrawals

Free - $1.50

BTC Spread

2.13% (Feb 6, 2022)

Trading Volume Discount

Independent Reserve Trade Volume Discount

Independent Reserve Price Test (Feb 6, 2022)

This data is subject to change as spreads and prices change daily. However, we tested Independent Reserve and 10+ other platforms to help you compare true fees on each platform.

Header

Amount

Ranking

$100 Buy After All Fees

$98.32 (1.68% total fee)

9th place

$100 Sale After All Fees

$98.57 (1.43% total fee)

9th place

BTC Spread

2.13%

12th place

BTC Buy Price

$59,159 AUD

-

BTC Sell Price

$57,924 AUD

-

Ref. Price Difference

Buy: +1.18%

Sell: -0.93%

-

Reference Price (Google)

$58,468

-

How We Tested This

The "$100 After All Fees" adds everything from when you deposit money to make your order plus the reference price difference.

The price test was conducted by logging into all platforms simultaneously and collecting buy/sell orders. We did this as quickly as possible (within minutes) in order to be as accurate as possible since prices can change rapidly. Find out more about our testing process.

Independent Reserve had a total purchase fee of 1.68% for buying Bitcoin. This was 9th place overall. The total fee to sell Bitcoin and cash out AUD was 1.43% which was also 9th place. After testing over a dozen platforms, Independent Reserve is not the cheapest option right now.

We found cheaper Australian crypto exchanges such as Binance, Kraken and many more. See all Australian crypto exchanges we tested.


Platform & Features

Updated: Sep 5, 2021

Independent Reserve has limited features and coins compared to competitors. Here is a breakdown of the product and offerings:

List of Features:

  • Web App and Mobile App
  • AutoBuys
  • Recurring orders
  • AutoBasket
  • 24/7 customer support
  • Crypto Insurance (paid)
  • Premium Account Plans (paid)
  • Tax Summary (paid)
  • OTC desk, SMSF and high net worth accounts
  • Affiliate program

1. Trading Interface

Independent reserves has multiple ways of purchasing cryptocurrencies. On the "trade" page you can set market orders, limit orders and stop prices. It also shows the live order book and you can toggle between 4 fiat currencies (AUD, USD, NZD, SGD). Keep in mind, there are no price charts on the platform.

There is also the "AutoTrader" feature which gives you additional ways to trade including:

  • AutoBuys - Automatically buy crypto when you make a fiat deposit
  • AutoBasket - Buy a weighted basket of cryptocurrencies (eg. 80% BTC, 20% ETH). The basket is not customizable
  • AutoSchedule - Set up recurring orders based on a fully customizable schedule and settings
Advanced Trade

2. Crypto Insurance

You can pay to insure your crypto assets up to $5 million AUD. At the time of this writing the price starts at $300 AUD per year for $20k in coverage Their website states:

"A Premium Account plan insures you against a loss of any cryptocurrency that is held in an Independent Reserve wallet. The policy covers any breach of Independent Reserve's physical security measures and employee theft."

Here's more info on how the insurance works and the current prices below:

Crypto Insurance

3. Premium Account Plans

Premium accounts are mainly based off the insurance packages above, which are a yearly price. However, there's also some extra perks included such as:

  • Premium support - skip the queue to get faster responses
  • Free merchandise sent to your address
  • Lower fees on some plans, as low as 0.02%

4. Multiple Account Types

  • Personal Accounts
  • OTC Desk (over $100k+ orders)
  • SMSF
  • High Net-worth & Family Offices
  • Premium Accounts with Insurance
  • Adviser Program

5. Affiliate Program

Get paid for inviting your friends and new users to join Independent Reserve. You will earn 50% of all their brokerage fees for the first 90 days.


Customer Support

Updated: Sep 5, 2021

Independent Reserve is one of the only Australian-based platforms to offer 24/7 customer support and they typically reply within a few hours based on my experience. To chat with their team team, you can open a support ticket and send messages from inside your account. They also offer a help desk with FAQs, blogs and free crypto tutorials. 

If you pay for a Premium Account your support messages automatically skip the queue to get faster responses.


FAQ

Is Independent Reserve Insured?

Research underway.

Is Independent Reserve A Wallet?

Research underway.

Is Independent Reserve Legal In Australia?

Research underway.


Independent Reserve

Independent Reserve

Start trading 25+ cryptocurrencies

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