Who runs your exchange?
When your crypto sits on a platform, you do not own crypto — you own a claim against a company. What that claim is worth depends on the company's solvency, its jurisdiction, and the judgement of the people running it. That makes leadership a risk factor rather than trivia, and it is checkable.
FTX — the founder is in prison
FTX was among the largest exchanges in the world, endorsed by celebrities and sports leagues, until it collapsed in November 2022 with billions of customer funds missing. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in November 2023 and sentenced to 25 years in March 2024. No amount of slick interface or advertising spend was information about what was happening with customer money — the leadership was.
Binance — the founder pleaded guilty and served time
In November 2023 Binance, the world's largest exchange by volume, pleaded guilty to US charges and agreed to a multi-billion-dollar penalty. Founder Changpeng Zhao resigned as chief executive, pleaded guilty to a Bank Secrecy Act violation, and served a four-month sentence. The exchange continues to operate under new leadership — which is precisely the point: platforms survive their founders, and knowing which is which changes how you read the news.
Who you are actually dealing with
| Exchange | Founded | Head office | Australian-based | AUSTRAC | AFSL status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swyftx | 2018 | Brisbane, QLD | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| CoinSpot | 2013 | Melbourne, VIC | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| Kraken | 2011 | San Francisco, US | No | Registered | Transitional |
| Coinbase | 2012 | US (remote-first) | No | Registered | Licensed |
| CoinJar | 2013 | Melbourne, VIC | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| Independent Reserve | 2013 | Sydney, NSW | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| OKX | 2017 | Global (AU entity) | No | Registered | Transitional |
| BTC Markets | 2013 | Melbourne, VIC | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| Crypto.com | 2016 | Singapore | No | Registered | Transitional |
| Digital Surge | 2017 | Brisbane, QLD | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| Cointree | 2013 | Melbourne, VIC | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| Coinstash | 2017 | Brisbane, QLD | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| Binance | 2017 | Global | No | Registered | Transitional |
| Elbaite | 2017 | Melbourne, VIC | 🇦🇺 Yes | Registered | Transitional |
| eToro | 2007 | Israel / eToro AUS (AFSL 491139) | No | Registered | Licensed |
15 platforms we review, 9 operating from Australia · refreshed every daily rebuild from our verified database · licence progress tracked on the AFSL tracker
Leadership & ownership notes
Swyftx
Brisbane, QLD · est. 2018Founded 2018 by two school science-camp friends
Alex Harper and Angus Goldman met at a school science camp and built Swyftx into one of Australia's largest exchanges from Brisbane. It remains privately held and Australian-headquartered, which means Australian law and Australian regulators are the ones with jurisdiction over your account — the single most practical fact on this page.
Source: Forbes Australia
CoinSpot
Melbourne, VIC · est. 2013Founded 2013; deliberately private ownership
CoinSpot has operated from Melbourne since 2013 and is one of the largest platforms in the country by Australian user numbers, yet its ownership and leadership keep an unusually low public profile compared with its peers. That is not an accusation — private companies are entitled to privacy — but it is a fact worth weighing: the less a platform discloses about who stands behind it, the more of your due diligence has to rest on its regulatory registrations and track record instead.
Kraken
San Francisco, US · est. 2011Founded 2011; among the longest continuously operating exchanges
Jesse Powell founded Kraken in 2011, in the aftermath of the Mt. Gox troubles that eventually destroyed that exchange. Longevity is not a guarantee of anything, but in an industry where most venues from that era no longer exist, surviving more than a decade of crashes, hacks and regulatory shifts is a track record in itself.
Coinbase
US (remote-first) · est. 2012Founded 2012; the one you can read the accounts of
Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam founded Coinbase in 2012, and it listed on Nasdaq in April 2021. That listing is the interesting part for a customer: a public company files audited accounts, discloses risks, and answers to securities regulators. You may still dislike its fees, but you can read its balance sheet — something true of almost no other exchange on this page.
CoinJar
Melbourne, VIC · est. 2013Co-founded May 2013; the long-running Melbourne operator
Asher Tan and Ryan Zhou co-founded CoinJar in Melbourne in May 2013, backed early by Blackbird Ventures and later by Digital Currency Group. It expanded into the UK in 2014, where its subsidiary was registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in 2021 — a rare case of an Australian exchange holding registrations in two serious regulatory regimes.
Source: Wikipedia: CoinJar
Independent Reserve
Sydney, NSW · est. 2013Founded 2013 — and acquired by IG Group in January 2026
Adrian Przelozny and Adam Tepper founded Independent Reserve in June 2013, trading from October 2014. After Adam Tepper died in a motorcycle accident in February 2015, Przelozny became chief executive. In 2019 it became the first Australian exchange to offer insurance on crypto assets, and in August 2021 it was approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In January 2026 it was acquired by the London-listed IG Group — a reminder that ownership can change under you while your balance sits there, and that who you signed up with is not always who holds your account today.
Source: Wikipedia: Independent Reserve
Notes are added only where the facts trace to a public source. Platforms without a note here are not being criticised — we simply have not verified enough to write one yet.
Five checks you can run yourself
The head office decides which laws apply and which regulator answers your complaint. An Australian-headquartered platform means Australian courts, AUSTRAC and ASIC. An offshore one may mean a jurisdiction where recovering anything is theoretical.
Founder-run, venture-backed, or a subsidiary of a listed company? Ownership changes hands more often than customers notice, and the new owner inherits your balance along with the brand.
AUSTRAC registration is mandatory anti-money-laundering compliance, not a quality mark. An AFSL is a higher bar with capital and conduct obligations attached. Both are checkable facts, and we track them for every platform.
Hacks, outages and withdrawal freezes happen to almost everyone eventually. The signal is not whether it happened but what the company said while it was happening, and who was made whole afterwards.
Some platforms custody assets themselves; others use a third-party custodian, and a few hold client assets with an insurer behind them. It changes who is on the hook if something goes wrong — and it is usually answered in the terms of service rather than the marketing.
Some exchanges publish leadership, audits and proof-of-reserves; others publish a logo. Disclosure is not proof of safety, but a company confident in its position rarely hides who runs it.
What we deliberately don't publish
You will not find net-worth estimates, home locations or family details here, and that is a decision rather than an oversight. Wealth figures for crypto executives are guesses that move with token prices — printing them as fact would be inventing news. Home and family details put real people at risk of the targeted robberies and kidnappings this industry has already seen, and the relatives involved never chose public life. None of it would help you judge whether a platform will still be solvent next year. Everything above is here because it survives that test.
Next: our full exchange reviews score every platform on fees, security and transparency, the exchange graveyard records the ones that failed, and how we review explains the method behind the scores.
FAQ
Why does it matter who runs an exchange?
Because when you hold crypto on a platform, you do not hold crypto — you hold a claim against a company. The value of that claim depends entirely on the company's solvency and honesty, and both are functions of the people in charge. FTX had a beautiful app right up until the money was gone.
Why don't you publish net worth, homes or family details?
Three reasons, all deliberate. Wealth estimates for crypto executives are unverifiable and swing wildly with token prices, so publishing them as fact would be inventing news. Home locations put real people at risk — crypto executives are documented targets of kidnapping and violent robbery. And family members are private individuals who never chose public life. None of it would help you choose an exchange, which is the only reason this page exists.
Does an Australian-based exchange mean my money is safer?
It means your legal recourse is closer to home and the regulator supervising the platform is one you can actually contact. It does not make the platform solvent, competent or hack-proof. Note also that "based here" and "owned here" are different things — Independent Reserve still runs from Sydney but has been owned by London-listed IG Group since January 2026 — so the table below shows where a platform operates, and the notes cover who owns it.
How often is this updated?
The registration, licence and jurisdiction table refreshes with every daily rebuild from our verified database. The leadership notes are written by hand and reviewed when something material changes, such as an acquisition or a change of chief executive.
General information only, not financial advice. Corporate facts are drawn from our verified database and the public sources cited; regulatory standing changes, so check the AFSL tracker for the current position. Corrections are welcome via our corrections policy.