Bybit Co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou has outlined the next stage of the company’s evolution from a crypto exchange into what it calls The New Financial Platform, highlighting new products and collaborations spanning traditional and digital markets.
The updates were presented at Bybit’s latest biannual “Keynote with Ben” session, titled “Make Your Move,” where Zhou discussed the convergence of financial markets and the company’s approach to building for that shift. Held outside the usual studio format, the keynote brought Zhou together with a live audience and selected guests to explore changes in the financial landscape, new technologies, and the products shaping Bybit’s next phase.
Four Years of TradFi Expansion — With Stocks Now Live
Four years after entering traditional finance through contracts for difference (CFDs) in 2022, Bybit has become the largest crypto CFD platform, with trading volume peaking at $100 billion. On October 12, the company expanded into traditional markets by launching stock trading for eligible users—offering access to more than 1,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs, traded in USDC, with fractional shares and 24/5 access across U.S. pre-market, regular, and after-hours sessions.
Next up is mStocks, developed in collaboration with Mantle and targeted for a November launch. The tokenized stock product is designed to be backed 1:1 by real stocks, with plans for round-the-clock conversion between eligible stocks and mStocks on Bybit, as well as decentralized exchange trading through AMM liquidity pools on Mantle. Converted mStocks are also expected to be transferable into Bybit’s Unified Trading Account (UTA) for use as trading collateral, subject to applicable terms.
Bybit also launched IPO Express in June, giving eligible users access to selected IPO opportunities at the offering price through tokenized representations of the underlying securities. The service debuted with SpaceX, extending Bybit’s reach beyond secondary-market trading into selected primary-market opportunities.
These developments build on Bybit’s earlier expansion into perpetuals, pre-market products, foreign exchange, and options. Its TradFi offering now spans more than 600 products across equities, ETFs, indices, commodities, and FX. TradFi perpetuals have recorded over $180 billion in trading volume, with recent additions including Forex Perps and Perp Options — an industry-first options product built on TradFi perpetuals. The company is also developing new perpetual products tied to AI computing and commodities.
Extending the Platform Into Payments
Beyond trading and investing, Bybit has expanded its payments infrastructure to help customers move funds more flexibly. Bybit Pay and Bybit Card support crypto and fiat transfers, merchant payments, and everyday spending—now connecting users with more than 5,000 merchants across 15+ countries, along with bank and e-wallet transfers, QR payments, and other services. With more than 4 million Bybit Cards issued, the platform’s use increasingly extends beyond financial markets into everyday payments and spending.
Security and Regulatory Infrastructure
The expansion has been matched by investment in security, compliance, and technology. In the first half of 2026, Bybit said it intercepted more than 30,000 suspicious withdrawal requests, protecting users from over $700 million in potential losses.
The company also secured five new licenses and regulatory approvals in 2026—across the European Union, the Cayman Islands, Indonesia, South Africa, and El Salvador—supporting its efforts to expand across markets, subject to local requirements. In September, Bybit launched Bybit AI, a conversational assistant spanning trading, account management, and customer support, with further development planned across the platform’s wider financial services.
“Bybit is all about giving you the speed and scale you need when you Make Your Move. We have brought trading, investing, payments and AI together, and we are continuing to add more markets and more ways to use them. We built the platform. Now it is about giving people the financial freedom to make their own move,” said Ben Zhou, Co-founder and CEO of Bybit.
Building Beyond the Exchange
Four years after entering TradFi, Bybit now combines crypto markets with stocks and ETFs, derivatives, commodities, FX, selected pre-IPO access, payments and AI-powered services. The company increasingly focuses on bringing these capabilities together in a single platform while continuing to expand market access, product depth, and the infrastructure supporting them.
For Bybit, developing The New Financial Platform marks the next stage of its growth beyond crypto and into a broader role across global financial markets.