Crypto exchange Bybit to become more bank-like with new accounts

Crypto exchange Bybit plans to start offering banking services with the launch of accounts that will let customers hold balances in US dollars and other fiat currencies.

The Dubai-based firm will roll out the accounts with the help of partner banks, including Pave Bank, a startup lender licensed in Eastern European country Georgia, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said in an interview. These “MyBank” accounts will carry an International Bank Account Number (IBAN), allowing customers to transfer 18 currencies in and out, Zhou said. They are expected to go live in February, pending regulatory approvals.

The result is that Bybit may start to look more like a so-called “neo-bank” — a platform offering a broad array of financial services. Revolut and Robinhood, two of the best-known outfits in the neo-bank bracket, branched out into crypto trading after luring millions of users with banking and trading services. Bybit’s plan is to do that in reverse.

“The moment that your pound or US dollar arrives, you can choose to transfer it to crypto,” Zhou said. “That’s a huge update.”

Bybit is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges by trading volume, with more than 81 million customers globally, according to its website. Zhou sees the crypto firm’s edge in its global distribution: it’s already active in over 200 jurisdictions and has partnered with close to 2,000 banks to support its operations, he said.

About a year ago, the exchange suffered a $1.5 billion hack attributed to North Korea, after which it was forced to borrow from other platforms and use its own treasury funds to replace the roughly 515,000 tokens — mostly Ether but also derivatives of the coin — that were stolen.

To qualify for the new IBAN accounts, users will need to pass “know your customer” checks run by both Bybit and its banking partners.

This isn’t the exchange’s first thrust beyond digital assets. It previously expanded into commodities and stocks trading by offering Contracts for Difference, a kind of derivative.

Custody product

Bybit also plans to launch a new custody product for institutional investors, Zhou said.

It will primarily support banks and other large investors involved in tokenizing real-world assets — creating digital representations of property or stocks, for example, and linking them to blockchains.

Even as the business expands, one red-hot area that it will eschew is prediction markets.

“We looked and there had been a lot of compliance challenges,” Zhou said. “That’s why you haven’t seen any centralized exchanges launching these products.”

Looming larger on Bybit’s radar is the US market, which under pro-crypto President Donald Trump has drawn the gaze of many global operators. Tether Holdings SA has just launched a US-focused stablecoin to complement its flagship USDT product, while crypto exchange OKX last year announced plans to expand in the US just weeks after agreeing to settle charges brought by local authorities.

Bybit has been “looking into” US expansion, but would need to work with a licensed partner, Zhou said.

A public listing in the US is a long-term goal, “and we are getting more and more prepared,” he said, adding that the company is in talks with major banks about potentially advising on the effort.

© 2026 Bloomberg

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