How to Buy ADA in Singapore (Independent Reserve)

First Fully Licensed Exchange in Singapore

Independent Reserve Info

On 1st October 2021, Independent Reserve became the first fully licensed exchange to operate as a regulated provider of Digital Payment Token Services in Singapore. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) approved the license under the Payment Services Act.

Trading Pairs:

Independent Reserve currently operates SGD trading pairs with 10 cryptocurrencies. Besides our favorite ADA, one can also trade BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, DOT, ETC, LINK, LTC and USDC.

However, please note that no cross-crypto trading pair is available (e.g. ADA/BTC, ADA/ETH etc.)

In addition, this platform is currently desktop-based only. There is no mobile app version, which makes it difficult to trade on the move. 

Referral Code:

KOPI stands to earn 50% of all brokerage fees paid by referred customers for the first 90 days.

  • Enter RGTAUW  referral code at signup
  • Or use this link 

Sign up and Verification

As expected for regulated exchanges, KYC (Know Your Customers) is inevitable during the sign up process.

You will need to provide:

  • Front and Back photos of Identification Card (NRIC etc.)
  •  Selfie photo with Identification Card, and a piece of paper stating “Independent Reserve” and date
  • Latest Utility Statement
It should take no more than 48h for them to verify your account.
 
Also, it is good practice to enable 2FA and Whitelistings for security purposes.

Deposit SGD

Before you start trading, you need to deposit SGD into your Independent Reserve account.

Independent Reserve Account

If you have previously verified your personal bank accounts in Xfers, chances are your SGD bank accounts will already be displayed in the top right corner under “accounts”.

If not, you will need to manually add your bank accounts here.

Once your bank accounts are added, you can perform a SGD FAST transfer from your bank account to Independent Reserve.

Note that there is a deposit limit of SGD20,000.00  during a 24h period. In addition, there is a SGD deposit fee of 0.55%.

Once your transfer is complete, you should see your SGD funds displayed on this page.

Buy/Sell and Trade ADA

There are two ways to buy ADA on this platform:

First Method: Buy/Sell ADA

Independent Reserve Buy Sell

Under the tab “buy/sell”, you can perform simple buy and sell actions using either “Buy in SGD” or “Buy in ADA”. 

This is recommended for beginners looking for the easiest way to buy or sell ADA at the indicated live price. 

Second Method: Trade ADA

Independent Reserve Trade

Under the tab “trade”, you can perform both market and limit/stop trades.

This is recommended for experienced traders, as limit/stop orders allow more control over price points. 

Note that there is a 0.5% Brokerage Fees and Taxes on your trades. This fee percentage varies from 0.5% to 0.02% according to the Trade Volume Discount:

Trade volume discount

Withdraw ADA to Daedalus/Yoroi for Staking

Before you can withdraw your ADA to Daedalus/Yoroi for staking, you need to verify your Cardano address in Independent Reserve under tab “accounts” (below Bank Accounts).

Verified Addesses

To verify your Cardano address, you need to send a specific amount of ADA to your ADA wallet address in Independent Reserve from your own Cardano wallet address (the one you are verifying).

You can find your own Cardano wallet address from the “Receive” tab of both your Daedalus and Yoroi wallets. 

Note that there is an ADA withdrawal fee of 0.5 ADA.

After withdrawing your ADA from Independent Reserve to Daedalus/Yoroi, you may want to delegate your ADA to KOPI.

  1. Receiving address differs from Sending address:

    Cardano uses randomly generated sending addresses due to security/privacy control. 

    Hence, the receiving address that requires verification will be different from the one used to send across the specified amount.

    Please write in to Independent Reserve on this issue and they will ask you to send across screenshots for verification instead.

  2. Receiving address is empty:

    If your wallet is empty, you won’t be able to send across the specified amount for verification.

    In this case, also write in to Independent Reserve. Screenshot that proves you are the owner of that wallet address should suffice for verification.

Withdraw SGD to Bank Account

After you sell your ADA, you may want to withdraw your SGD back into your bank account. 

Note that there is withdrawal limit of SGD20,000.00 during a 24h period. In addition, there is a SGD withdrawal fee of 0.55%.

2 thoughts on “How to Buy ADA in Singapore (Independent Reserve)

  1. Hello, I am using Daedalus. My receiving address is constantly changing due to the security feature. IR requires verification of address by sending 1.89, but my sending address is different from my receiving address. which address should I use?

    1. Hi Nick, thanks for your query.
      I have communicated with IR on this same issue, and I have explained that due to privacy control Cardano uses random sending addresses, so in fact their verification requirements don’t really work.
      Please write in to IR on this issue. They should promptly ask you to send in screenshots of both your receiving address and the transaction history with specified amount, and then your address will be verified.
      Hope this works for you, as it did for me. Cheers!

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