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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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cMyBank\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The result is that Bybit may start to look more like a so-called \u201cneo-bank\u201d \u2014 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\u2019s plan is to do that in reverse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment that your pound or US dollar arrives, you can choose to transfer it to crypto,\u201d Zhou said. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge update.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bybit is one of the world\u2019s largest crypto exchanges by trading volume, with more than 81 million customers globally, according to its website. Zhou sees the crypto firm\u2019s edge in its global distribution: it\u2019s already active in over 200 jurisdictions and has partnered with close to 2,000 banks to support its operations, he said.<\/p>\n
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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 \u2014 mostly Ether but also derivatives of the coin \u2014 that were stolen.<\/p>\n
To qualify for the new IBAN accounts, users will need to pass \u201cknow your customer\u201d checks run by both Bybit and its banking partners.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the exchange\u2019s first thrust beyond digital assets. It previously expanded into commodities and stocks trading by offering Contracts for Difference, a kind of derivative.<\/p>\n
Bybit also plans to launch a new custody product for institutional investors, Zhou said.<\/p>\n
It will primarily support banks and other large investors involved in tokenizing real-world assets \u2014 creating digital representations of property or stocks, for example, and linking them to blockchains.<\/p>\n
Even as the business expands, one red-hot area that it will eschew is prediction markets.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe looked and there had been a lot of compliance challenges,\u201d Zhou said. \u201cThat\u2019s why you haven\u2019t seen any centralized exchanges launching these products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looming larger on Bybit\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Bybit has been \u201clooking into\u201d US expansion, but would need to work with a licensed partner, Zhou said.<\/p>\n
A public listing in the US is a long-term goal, \u201cand we are getting more and more prepared,\u201d he said, adding that the company is in talks with major banks about potentially advising on the effort.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
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