Independent Reserve review: MAS licence, 0.5% fee and USDT costs

Who runs Independent Reserve in Singapore

Independent Reserve was founded in 2013 and says it serves customers “in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and across the world”. Its Singapore website is run by Independent Reserve SG Pte. Ltd. (UEN 201942383Z), the company named in the Singapore terms and conditions. The Australian and New Zealand companies of the group are not named on the Singapore site, so this review covers only the Singapore service. All facts were checked on 28 October 2026 on independentreserve.com/sg.

Licence

Independent Reserve SG Pte. Ltd. holds a Major Payment Institution licence (PS20200517) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for digital payment token services under the Payment Services Act 2019. The risk warning on every page, which MAS requires, says the licence does not mean you will recover all your money or tokens if the business fails, and that MAS does not supervise unregulated services such as trading token derivatives. We could not check the licence in the MAS register, because that site answered with a bot-protection page.

The terms accept only users “with no nexus to high-risk and/or sanctioned jurisdictions”, without a list of countries. No page we read mentions mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan.

Fees

Independent Reserve runs an order book. It charges one trading fee on every buy or sell: 0.5% at the start, falling to as low as 0.02% with your 30-day trading volume. It publishes no separate maker and taker rates, and we did not find the volume tiers on the fee page.

Deposits and withdrawals in SGD and USD

• SGD deposits: PayNow free; FAST free from SGD 1,000, otherwise SGD 2.50; TT transfer SGD 15.
• USD deposits: SWIFT USD 15 (USD 2.50 from DBS accounts).
• SGD withdrawals: FAST SGD 1.50; TT transfer SGD 25; SGD 20 for amounts of SGD 200,000 and over.
• USD withdrawals: SWIFT USD 25 (USD 1.50 to DBS accounts).

Independent Reserve says client fiat is held with DBS. Crypto deposits are free.

USDT and other crypto withdrawals

The fee page lists a withdrawal fee for each coin and network:

• USDT: 10.0 USDT on Ethereum, 4.0 USDT on TRON
• USDC: 10.0 USDC on Ethereum; 1.0 USDC on Solana, Base or Arbitrum One
• BTC: 0.0001 BTC; ETH: 0.003 ETH on Ethereum, 0.0004 ETH on Base or Arbitrum One

No minimum withdrawal is shown. Independent Reserve says the fee covers the cost of making the withdrawal and managing its wallets.

Leveraged trading

Leveraged (margin) trading is open only to Corporate Accredited Investors, not to individuals. Besides the trading fee it costs 0.05% a day on leveraged buys and 0.03% a day on leveraged sells, plus 1% of the loan if a position is liquidated. Independent Reserve itself warns that leverage “is risky and magnifies your exposure to market volatility”. We found no maximum leverage on the pages we read.

Not offered or not found

We found no staking or earn product, no peer-to-peer market and no proof-of-reserves page on the Singapore site. Independent Reserve says external auditors check client balances in the annual audit MAS requires, which is not the same as a public proof of reserves.

Before you open an account

• Check the fee for your volume before trading large amounts.
• Note that FAST deposits under SGD 1,000 cost SGD 2.50, while PayNow deposits are free.
• Compare the USDT network fees before you withdraw.

We have not tested Independent Reserve with our own account yet; this review will be updated when we do.