In this special partnership with luxury house Tod’s, three trailblazers from finance, fitness, and the food and beverage industries share how they see their businesses through new lenses
Here, we speak with Lasanka Perera, CEO of Independent Reserve Singapore, Singapore’s first MAS-approved cryptocurrency exchange.
When global markets collapsed under the weight of the 2008 financial crisis, Lasanka Perera faced a stark reality. Retrenched from his role at financial institution Société Générale, he saw firsthand how traditional financial systems left the most vulnerable to bear the costs of their failings. “The financial crisis exposed that the rules are not the same for everyone,” says Perera. “They constantly change, benefiting those closest to power.”
It is hardly surprising, then, that when Bitcoin was introduced soon after the crisis, Perera was attracted to its potential as an alternative financial system. Unlike traditional systems, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies operate without intermediaries, offering a decentralised and transparent network that can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection.
When Perera started exploring Bitcoin, he was left disappointed with the reliability of existing exchanges at the time. Perhaps motivated by this, as well as by Bitcoin’s game-changing potential, Perara and his friends, Adrian Przelozny and Adam Tepper, founded Independent Reserve in 2013, with the aim of building a robust and reliable crypto exchange platform.
“We built Independent Reserve from the ground up, just as you would a regulated business,” explains Perera. “With strong backgrounds in trading, systems and regulation, and a board of directors with decades of experience, we laid a solid foundation from day one.”
Eleven years on, it appears the groundwork has paid dividends. Independent Reserve is now one of the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2021, Independent Reserve Singapore became the first cryptocurrency exchange to secure regulatory approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). With the crypto space’s reputation as the ‘wild west’ of the financial world, receiving regulatory approval in Singapore was a landmark achievement for
the company.
“Rather than seeing regulation as a challenge, we methodically went about meeting MAS’s clear and specific requirements,” he explains. “Our policies, like know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering measures, are essential in preventing fraud, safeguarding assets, and ensuring a transparent and trustworthy financial ecosystem.”
While the exchange has grown exponentially in recent years, Lasanka Perera remains unwavering in his original vision to provide a safe and alternative way for those most affected by the inefficiencies of traditional financial systems to grow their money.
“Decentralisation is about empowering individuals. Four billion people live in Asia, many affected by inefficient banking systems, high remittance costs, flawed national currencies and unfairly run political regimes,” he says. “We are bringing the crypto capabilities we’ve built over the last 11 years into the payments and wealth segments to help people generate and retain more of their wealth.”
It would be reasonable to expect that Perera, having spent more than a decade building Independent Reserve from the ground up, would feel a little burnt out. Yet, he seems more energised than ever. “The fact that we can meaningfully change the lives of billions of people by connecting them to a global system of money and finance for the first time—helping them outrun inflation and eliminate billions of dollars lost to remittance costs—is truly inspiring,” he says.
This story first appeared in the January 2025 issue. Purchase it as a print or digital copy, or consider subscribing to us here
