![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ben-Zhou-Co-Founder-and-CEO-Bybit-1.jpeg?w=2048\")
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When Ben Zhou founded Bybit in 2018, he first had to convince his team that Bitcoin wasn\u2019t a scam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eight years later, digital assets are now mainstream. Governments and traditional finance institutions are warming to cryptocurrencies, perhaps most dramatically shown by the U.S.\u2019s passage of the GENIUS Act last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe traditional world is embracing crypto,\u201d Zhou, who leads the world\u2019s second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, tells Fortune. <\/em>\u201cIf they don\u2019t embrace it, they will be obsolete, especially with crypto wallet adoption growing 20 to 30% each year.\u201d<\/p>\n Currencies like stablecoins are becoming increasingly regulated, and can now be used for things like remittances and payments, Zhou adds. In 2025, over $18 trillion in transactions was settled in stablecoins, eclipsing total transactions on traditional payment platforms like Visa and Mastercard, according to crypto research firm Delphi Digital.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrency transactions are \u201cfaster and cheaper\u201d than traditional bank transfers, Zhou argues. \u201cIf you rely on the existing infrastructure and transfer via SWIFT, it\u2019s just too slow.\u201d<\/p>\n Investment banks like Goldman Sachs are working to integrate tokenized assets in their trading and advisory operations, while payment providers like Visa and Mastercard are building partnerships with crypto exchanges like Bybit to issue payment cards which enable users to spend crypto holdings as fiat in real-time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crypto is going to be the \u201cmain driving force\u201d behind traditional financial instruments like stocks and credit-default swaps within the next decade, Zhou argues. \u201cAccessibility, connectivity and unification is really the beauty of this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Building Bybit<\/strong><\/p>\n Before entering the crypto industry, Zhou worked as a Forex trader at financial brokerage XM, where he spent seven years as its China general manager. Back then, crypto was still niche. Many investors viewed it as a \u201cpump and dump\u201d scam, he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zhou had an early interest in crypto, but found that platforms at the time were often overloaded whenever Bitcoin moved. He started Bybit in Shanghai, recruiting a team of about 15 software engineers from major Chinese tech firms like Tencent and Alibaba.\u00a0<\/p>\n After China banned crypto mining and trading in 2021, Zhou relocated his team to Singapore; a year later, he moved again to Dubai, drawn by the UAE\u2019s crypto-friendly regulations, including no taxation on crypto income or capital gains, and a clear regulatory framework for digital assets.<\/p>\n Today, Bybit operates globally in over 150 countries, though the platform doesn\u2019t offer services in several others, including the U.S., Canada, China and Singapore.<\/p>\n Yet, safety challenges remain<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the finance industry\u2019s overall optimism on cryptocurrency, challenges in ensuring safe transactions remain.<\/p>\n On Feb. 21, 2025, North Korean hackers stole $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum from Bybit in the largest crypto theft in history. The hack spooked Bybit\u2019s customers, leading to \u201cmassive withdrawals,\u201d Zhou said at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n The exchange launched an industry-first \u201cRecovery Bounty Program,\u201d which called on the global cybersecurity community to help trace and recover the stolen currency, offering 10% of the stolen funds as a reward. Bybit wasn\u2019t able to recover the stolen funds, but it was able to secure financing to effectively restore its reserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zhou says that, since the hack, Bybut has tightened its security measures, including using hardware security modules (HSMs), tamper-resistant physical devices that securely generate, stores, and manages cryptographic keys. \u201cUnless there\u2019s a physical break-in, no one will be able to touch tokens,\u201d Zhou explains.<\/p>\n Still, the Bybit CEO admits that the fast pace of cryptocurrency transactions means that it\u2019s hard to stop scams and thefts from happening. \u201cIf you lose money or get scammed, and are a customer of a bank, you can call the bank and they will be able to trace it,\u201d he explains. Tracing stolen funds is still possible in crypto, but \u201ceverything moves so fast that by the time you get to it, the money is already gone.\u201d<\/p>\n He remains upbeat, however, about the future of safety in the crypto industry. \u201cCrypto infrastructure and technology are only increasing in abundance, and many more cybersecurity companies are joining the space.\u201d<\/p>\n More countries have laid out regulatory frameworks for crypto companies like Bybit. For example, the EU rolled out the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in late 2024, which allows certified crypto providers to operate legally across the whole continent, instead of forcing companies to seek separate licenses from each individual country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zhou believes that enhanced regulation will pave the way for mainstream crypto adoption. He\u2019s focused on European markets this year, as well as developing markets like Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey and India, where demand for crypto is booming due to weak local currencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #TradFi #firms #increasingly #warming #cryptocurrencies #Bybit #CEO #Ben #Zhou<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Ben Zhou founded Bybit in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[10053,10052,529,184,1094,290,10050,10049,10051,10054],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}