Bybit is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange for trading digital assets. It was founded in 2018 by Ben Zhou, a Singaporean entrepreneur who serves as its chief executive. The company first operated out of Singapore, then moved its headquarters to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2022, where it is based today. As a centralized exchange, Bybit holds customer funds on their behalf, a custodial model in which the exchange controls the assets in a user's account rather than the user holding the keys directly. Bybit is privately held and is not listed on any public stock market.
Bybit has grown into one of the larger crypto trading venues by activity, and reporting in mid-2024 described it as the world's second-largest crypto exchange. That scale has come with regulatory attention. The platform has drawn warnings from authorities in several countries, including bodies in Japan and Canada, so where Bybit can be used legally varies by jurisdiction and changes over time.
The exchange is also tied to the largest known crypto exchange theft to date. On February 21, 2025, Bybit said it had been hacked and that about 400,000 Ether, worth roughly 1.4 billion dollars at the time, had been taken. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the attack to North Korea, naming actors it tracks under the label "TraderTraitor," which is linked to the same state-backed hacking activity blamed for earlier crypto thefts. Bybit said it replenished its reserves within about 72 hours of the breach, so customer balances were covered.
Bybit has also settled at least one significant legal matter. In October 2024 it resolved a case tied to the collapse of the FTX exchange by paying 228 million dollars. The exchange's record shows rapid growth alongside the security and regulatory pressure that comes with running a large global platform. Confirm whether Bybit is permitted and regulated in your own country before opening an account, and weigh the trade-offs of leaving assets in custodial storage.