Bybit Restricted Countries List 2026: Bans, Licenses & Alternatives

Which Countries Does Bybit Restrict?

Bybit's restricted list has actually shortened over the past 18 months as the platform converted regulatory friction into local licenses. Section 11.3 of its Service Agreement, last updated May 7, 2026, names 14 Excluded Jurisdictions where the platform refuses access.

Fully restricted as of 2026:

• North America: United States, Canada
• Greater China: Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong
• Asia-Pacific: Singapore, Uzbekistan
• Middle East: Dubai (despite Bybit's HQ being located there), Iran, Syria, Sudan
• Americas (sanctions): Cuba, North Korea
• Ukraine and Russia: Sevastopol plus Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk)

Three changes from earlier 2025 versions matter for traders. France is no longer restricted after Bybit was removed from the AMF blacklist in February 2025 and rolled French users onto Bybit EU. The United Kingdom has been re-opened since December 19, 2025 through the Archax partnership. India returned in stages between February and September 2025 after Bybit registered with FIU-IND.

The standout addition is Dubai. Bybit holds a VARA license for institutional services through Bybit MENA, but retail access to the main bybit.com platform is excluded from the emirate itself. This split is structural rather than punitive: the licensed institutional product runs separately from the global retail platform.

Countries Supported by Bybit

Outside the 14 Excluded Jurisdictions, Bybit operates in 160+ countries through a network of licensed regional entities, each with locally-tuned product sets and fiat rails.

• Europe and EEA (via Bybit EU, Vienna): All 29 EEA countries under MiCA passporting, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Greece, plus Norway and Iceland
• United Kingdom (via Archax): Spot and P2P trading across 100 pairs, derivatives excluded
• India (via FIU-IND registration): Spot, derivatives, options, and copy trading
• Asia-Pacific: Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia
• Middle East and Africa: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Israel, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco
• Latin America: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru
• Oceania: Australia, New Zealand

Fiat deposits are accepted in 65 currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, BRL, MXN, AED, INR, and JPY, via card, SEPA, SWIFT, P2P, and regional payment partners. The BybitCard has shipped 1.5 million units globally.

Bybit Derivatives Trading Restrictions

Bybit's derivatives stack runs in nearly every supported country, with three jurisdictional carve-outs reflecting either licensing scope or product carve-outs:

• United Kingdom: Spot and P2P only via the Archax framework. Derivatives, leverage, and perpetuals remain blocked because the FCA's retail derivatives ban from January 2021 is still in force.
• Bybit EU (under MiCA): Spot is live; derivatives are rolling out under MiFID II authorization tied to the Austrian MiCAR license. Coverage scope and leverage caps vary by member state under local product-intervention rules.
• India (via FIU-IND): Spot, derivatives, options, and copy trading all available, subject to the flat 30% capital gains tax and 1% TDS on every sale under the Income Tax Act.

The wider Bybit product set has shifted decisively toward TradFi perpetuals in 2026. Since Bybit TradFi launched in April 2026, the platform now lists 20 US stocks, 3 commodities (gold, silver, crude oil), and 3 global ETFs as USDT-quoted perpetual contracts at up to 10x leverage. Traders comparing venues can see live activity across the perpetual exchanges directory and the Bybit vs OKX and Binance vs Bybit breakdowns.

Does Bybit Require Mandatory KYC Verification?

Yes, since May 2023. Bybit eliminated its no-KYC tier in response to compounding regulatory pressure, and every Excluded Jurisdiction exclusion is enforced through full identity verification rather than IP geoblocks alone. Standard Verification is required to access any product on the platform.

The two-tier structure works as follows:

• Standard Verification (mandatory): Government-issued photo ID (passport, driver's license, or national ID) plus a live selfie. Unlocks spot, derivatives, copy trading, and crypto withdrawals up to 1M USDT per day.
• Advanced Verification (optional): Proof of address (utility bill or bank statement) on top of Standard. Raises withdrawal limits and unlocks higher VIP tier benefits, fiat rails through SEPA and SWIFT, and BybitCard issuance.

Standard Verification typically clears within 15 minutes per the Bybit KYC guide. EEA users hosted on Bybit EU are additionally subject to the EU Transfer of Funds Regulation (Travel Rule), which requires proof of wallet ownership for self-hosted transfers above EUR 1,000.

Is Bybit Banned in the US?

Yes. The United States is the first jurisdiction listed in Bybit's Excluded Jurisdictions, covering all 50 states and US territories. Bybit holds none of the licenses required to legally offer crypto trading to US persons: CFTC registration, FinCEN MSB registration, or state Money Transmitter Licenses.

Bybit shows no public sign of pursuing a US re-entry path under current leadership, and the platform has not commented on whether the structural changes proposed in the GENIUS Act of 2025 would change that calculus. US-based derivatives options are covered in the Coinbase Perpetuals restricted countries and Kraken restricted countries guides.

What Licenses Does Bybit Have?

Bybit operates through six separately licensed regional entities, which is more than any other Tier-1 derivatives exchange except OKX. The footprint has expanded materially since the start of 2025.

The MiCAR approval issued by Austria's FMA on May 28, 2025 is the most consequential of these. It made Bybit one of the first global exchanges to be MiCAR-licensed, with passporting rights across all 29 EEA countries and a new European HQ in Vienna with 100+ planned hires. The full MiCA transitional period ends July 1, 2026 with no extensions, after which Bybit EU will be the only legal route for European users.

The February 21, 2025 Lazarus Group hack drained $1.4 billion in ETH from a cold wallet through a Safe{Wallet} front-end spoofing exploit. Bybit covered every user balance within 72 hours and ordered third-party penetration testing through Hacken ahead of the MiCAR application. The incident did not result in any user fund losses but did accelerate Bybit's compliance push.

Can You Access Bybit with a VPN?

No. Mandatory KYC closes the loophole that used to make VPN access workable on derivatives venues. Bybit applies multi-layer location verification at signup (IP geolocation, phone country code, KYC document residency, and bank residency for fiat deposits) and continuously cross-checks these signals through account lifecycle.

Section 11.3 of the Service Agreement explicitly prohibits residence misrepresentation and reserves the right to liquidate positions and freeze withdrawals if an Excluded Jurisdictions user is identified post-onboarding. Sanctions screening runs against the US Treasury OFAC, EU, UN, UK, and UAE consolidated lists.

The genuinely no-KYC path is on-chain. The best decentralized perpetual exchanges guide and the Hyperliquid restricted countries breakdown cover non-custodial venues that sidestep the geoblocking question entirely.

Best Alternatives if Bybit is Unavailable in Your Country

Replacement depends on whether you need a regulated CEX for spot, a derivatives-focused venue, or non-custodial perpetuals. Our region-specific picks:

• United States: Coinbase (NYDFS, SEC, CFTC) and Kraken (FinCEN, state MTLs) cover spot. Coinbase Derivatives and Kraken Futures USA offer CFTC-registered perpetuals.
• Canada: Kraken Canada and Bitbuy hold FINTRAC MSB registration with CAD rails via Interac e-Transfer.
• Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong: HashKey and OSL are the two retail-licensed SFC platforms in Hong Kong. The Mainland remains a blanket-ban jurisdiction.
• Singapore: Coinhako and Independent Reserve are the main MAS-licensed Major Payment Institutions.
• Dubai (retail): Binance holds a full VARA VASP license for retail. OKX Middle East and Kraken MENA are also VARA-authorized.
• Higher-leverage no-KYC: Hyperliquid, BloFin, GMX, and dYdX lead on optional or non-existent KYC at high leverage.
• Cost-optimized: The lowest fee crypto perpetual exchanges guide ranks venues by maker-taker rates and funding cycles.

Always verify local licensing before depositing. Compliant access protects both your funds and your tax position.

Bottom Line

Bybit has converted a brutal 18 months into a structural advantage. The platform exited France, paused India, lost the UK, and absorbed a $1.4 billion hack, then walked back into each of those markets through licensed regional entities rather than the offshore-only stance it had three years ago.

The restricted list reads short for a reason. Bybit chose the OKX path of multi-jurisdiction licensing rather than the BloFin path of staying unlicensed, and the resulting blocklist is shorter than both BloFin's 40+ jurisdictions and OKX's 20.

For traders in any supported country, Bybit now combines deep derivatives liquidity, MiCA-backed EU access, FIU-IND coverage in India, and the only post-mega-hack track record showing 100% user fund preservation.

For those in the 14 Excluded Jurisdictions, the regional alternatives above remain the cleanest path. The perpetual exchanges directory and live open interest and funding rates trackers cover the working alternatives in every restricted market.