Bybit

What is Bybit?

Bybit is the world's second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, founded in 2018 by Ben Zhou and headquartered in Dubai. It serves more than 80 million users across 160+ countries, with 1,800+ spot assets and over 300 perpetual contracts among the deepest derivatives markets anywhere. Live volume, funding and liquidation data for every Bybit pair is tracked on this page.

In 2026 Bybit rebranded its strategy as "The New Financial Platform," extending beyond crypto into traditional markets, payments and banking-style services. Perps remain the core product, now alongside spot, options, copy trading, earn, a MiCA-licensed card and a growing TradFi suite, holding #1 in our perpetual exchange rankings. For metric-by-metric matchups against rivals, see Binance vs Bybit and Bybit vs OKX.

Bybit Futures Fee Schedule

Bybit charges non-VIP traders 0.02% maker and 0.055% taker on USDT, USDC and inverse perpetuals per its published fee structure. Funding payments apply on top every eight hours; current rates for every pair sit in the markets table below.

VIP tiers based on 30-day volume or balances cut fees to zero maker and 0.03% taker at Supreme VIP. Compare tier thresholds in our exchange VIP program breakdown, or see where Bybit lands among the lowest fee perpetual exchanges.

Bybit Leverage, Margin Modes & Liquidations

Bybit offers up to 100x leverage on BTC and ETH perpetuals, stepping down on smaller pairs and shrinking as position size climbs through its risk limit tiers. The Unified Trading Account lets one collateral pool back perps, spot and options at once, with isolated margin to ringfence single positions, cross margin to share equity, or portfolio margin for eligible accounts with offsetting exposure.

Liquidations trigger on mark price rather than last traded price, so a single thin print cannot stop out a position. Positions closing below bankruptcy price are absorbed by the insurance fund, with auto-deleveraging only as a last resort. Live liquidation totals per pair run in the table below and on our liquidations dashboard.

How Bybit Funding Rates Work

Bybit perps exchange funding between longs and shorts on an 8-hour cycle at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC, calculated from the premium between contract and spot index plus a fixed interest component. Positive funding means longs pay shorts; negative flips it. Bybit can shorten the interval on volatile contracts, so check the countdown before holding through a window.

Funding compounds into a real carrying cost: at an elevated 0.05% paid three times daily, an unhedged position bleeds roughly 1% a week before price moves anything. Predicted rates per pair appear below, and cross-exchange comparisons for funding arbitrage live on our funding rates tracker.

Bybit TradFi: Stocks, ETFs & 24/7 Perps

Bybit TradFi is the exchange's traditional markets suite and its defining product push through 2025 and 2026. It began with MT5-based CFDs on stocks, indices, gold and oil, expanded through weekly stock CFD listings in the March 2026 Stock Festival, then added 24/7 TradFi perpetual contracts in April 2026: USDT-settled derivatives on US stocks and global ETFs at up to 10x, tradable while underlying markets are closed.

The suite runs on Infra Capital, licensed by the Mauritius FSC, and excludes EEA residents among other regions. Our Bybit TradFi review covers the MT5 platform, contract mechanics, fees and eligibility.

Bybit's Licences: MiCA, UAE SCA, FIU-IND & More

Bybit converted regulatory pressure into licences faster than any large offshore exchange. Bybit EU GmbH received a MiCAR licence from Austria's FMA in May 2025, passported across 29 EEA countries through a dedicated bybit.eu platform run from Vienna. In October 2025 it became the first exchange to hold a full Virtual Asset Platform Operator Licence from the UAE's SCA, covering trading, brokerage, custody and fiat services across all seven Emirates, alongside its earlier VARA pathway in Dubai.

Registration with India's FIU-IND restored full Indian operations in September 2025, the Astana Financial Services Authority covers Kazakhstan, and the National Bank of Georgia covers Georgia. Bybit EU has also flagged a MiFID II application to bring derivatives to European clients under the licensed entity.

Where is Bybit Available?

Bybit operates in 160+ countries through regional entities, with 14 excluded jurisdictions including the United States, mainland China, Singapore and Canada. The United Kingdom reopened in December 2025 through an Archax partnership, India returned in stages through 2025 after the FIU registration, and France is served again via Bybit EU under MiCA passporting after its AMF blacklist removal.

Deposits work in 65 fiat currencies across 22 languages, with KYC mandatory since 2023. The country-by-country breakdown, including the Dubai retail carve-out and entity-level product differences, is in our Bybit restricted countries guide.

Is Bybit Safe and Legit?

Bybit's safety record now centers on how it handled the largest theft in crypto history. In February 2025, North Korea's Lazarus Group stole roughly $1.4 billion in ETH from a Bybit cold wallet, an attribution confirmed by the FBI. Withdrawals stayed open throughout, the asset gap closed within 72 hours through loans and open-market purchases, and no user funds were touched. The response, not the breach, is why the incident reads as a stress test passed.

Day to day, assets sit predominantly in cold storage behind multi-signature controls, Trusted Execution Environments and Threshold Signature Schemes, with wallet operations overhauled after the hack. Monthly Proof of Reserves verified by Hacken shows 1:1 backing, and a HackerOne bug bounty runs continuously. Counterparty risk never reaches zero on a centralized venue, so open interest and reserve attestations are worth checking before sizing up.