Bybit

Should you use Bybit in 2026, and can you?

Bybit suits active perps and options traders in a country it still serves. It's a weak choice for spot beginners, and the list of countries where you can't use it at all keeps growing. The core product is USDT/USDC perpetuals, futures and options. Spot, copy trading, bots, Earn and a TradFi arm sit around that core.

From June to November 2026, Bybit's access narrowed in Singapore, the EEA, Japan and the UK.

Bybit Service Restricted Countries: US, Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and sanctioned regions excluded

Where Bybit is not available or is restricted, as of November 2026:

• United States: no service of any kind (Service Restricted Countries, citing T&C §11.3).
• Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan and some Ukrainian regions: blocked. Some campaign terms limit the Canada block to Ontario and Quebec.
• Singapore: MAS added Bybit Fintech Ltd to its Investor Alert List on 17 June 2026.
• Japan: the exit was completed on 22 July 2026. Convert and withdrawals still work (notice).
• United Kingdom: new sign-ups stopped on 21 Sep 2026. Since 21 Oct 2026, accounts are withdrawal-only and bots have been terminated. The en-GB site closes on 19 Nov 2026 (UK notice).
• EEA: since 1 July 2026, residents are served by Bybit EU on bybit.eu, not bybit.com. Malta is excluded, and derivatives are not on Bybit EU's licence.
• UAE: the VARA licence covers spot exchange services only.
• Fiat services: a separate restricted-issuer list (updated 3 Oct 2026) includes Russia and Nigeria.

Where you live decides which Bybit entity serves you, and that decides what you can trade:

What you can trade: perps, futures, options, spot and TradFi

Derivatives are the reason to pick Bybit, and its TradFi menu is wider than at most crypto exchanges. One account gives you USDT- and USDC-margined perpetuals, dated futures and options.

Two perp markets carry extra risk. Innovation Zone perps list newer tokens and charge higher fees. Pre-market perps let you trade a token before it lists anywhere. They switch to standard perp fees once the symbol trades on at least three centralized exchange spot markets (pre-market FAQ).

Bybit TradFi gives you three ways to trade stocks:

Copy trading and bots are also available. Each adds its own risk on top of the strategy you copy or automate. Leveraged perps and options can be liquidated fast. Region matters too: Bybit EU and the VARA entity offer spot only, and UK accounts can no longer trade at all.

Bybit fees by VIP tier, with real cost examples

Derivatives fees are low at entry level, spot fees are average, and the special zones cost more. These rates come from Bybit's trading fee structure:

Perps cost far less than spot, and maker fees are under half the taker rate at every perp tier.

Bybit Trading Fee Structure: VIP 0 spot 0.1%/0.1%, perps 0.055% taker/0.02% maker, down to Supreme VIP

Each order is charged at the VIP level you hold when you place it. Fiat pairs use your 30-day spot volume or your VIP level, whichever is higher, and fiat VIP 1 needs about $1M in volume. Paying spot fees in MNT cuts them by 25% (MNT FAQ). The Bybit EU rate dates from August 2026, so confirm it on bybit.eu.

Here is how a $10,000 perp position works out. Opening and closing with market orders at VIP 0, you pay the 0.055% taker rate on both legs. Using limit orders on both legs, you pay the 0.02% maker rate instead. The same trade in the Innovation Zone costs 0.11% per leg.

Limit orders are the biggest saving for frequent traders. On a perp leg, the maker rate is under half the taker rate, and at Supreme VIP the maker rate is zero. Funding payments and network withdrawal fees come on top. They vary by contract and coin and are listed on the per-contract fee-rate page.

Is Bybit safe? The $1.5B hack, proof of reserves and licences

Bybit handled a record hack better than most exchanges would have, and it publishes reserve checks often. The global entity is still offshore, with no compensation scheme. Crypto prices move sharply, and any exchange can freeze withdrawals or fail, so treat a balance on Bybit as money at risk.

The hack. On 21 Feb 2025, attackers took about $1.46B in ETH from an Ethereum multisig cold wallet during a cold-to-warm transfer. It is the largest crypto theft on record. Bybit said the attackers got in through a compromised Safe{Wallet} developer machine. The FBI attributed the theft to North Korea's TraderTraitor (Lazarus) group in a public notice on 26–27 Feb 2025.

Withdrawals kept running, and Bybit restored its reserves in about 72 hours. Its post-mortem is less detailed than a full independent audit would be.

Proof of Reserves. Every 2026 report by the auditing firm Hacken shows an in-scope reserve ratio above 100%:

Hacken checks Bybit's customer liabilities against a Merkle tree, a structure that lets each user confirm their own balance is counted, and it reviews the tree's code. Bybit proves it owns each wallet address by sending small amounts that Hacken specifies. You can check that your balance is included on the Proof of Reserves page or with an open-source validator on GitHub. The latest report is the September 2026 PDF.

Licences and regulators:

The global platform has no deposit insurance and no ombudsman. UK users never had FSCS cover or access to the Financial Ombudsman. EEA users deal with a regulated company in Bybit EU, but they get fewer products.

KYC levels, withdrawal limits and account freezes

You can withdraw a fair amount without KYC, and Standard KYC is enough for nearly everyone. Bybit's own pages disagree about the top tier. The limits below come from the KYC levels page and the Individual KYC FAQ:

Bybit KYC levels table: Non-KYC, Standard, Advanced/Pro and Business verification compared for deposits

If you need Pro-level limits, ask support to confirm your cap in writing before you rely on it. To raise a limit manually, you have to set up Google Authenticator first (guide).

Users complain about compliance holds, where withdrawals pause while Bybit asks for more documents. Have proof of address and proof of income ready before you move large amounts. P2P runs under terms issued by the UAE entity (effective 19 Jan 2026) and isn't offered to users from mainland China. Card and fiat services follow the restricted-issuer list.

On privacy, the Pro tier asks for proof of income, and EU users fall under DAC8 and MiCA data-sharing rules. Reporting your taxes is your own job.

Bybit app, Unified Trading Account and support

The tools are built for experienced traders, and a testnet lets you practise without real money. The main thing to watch is cross-margin. Web and mobile come with learning materials for newer users.

The Unified Trading Account (UTA) pools your collateral across products. Your capital goes further, but a losing leveraged position can be liquidated using collateral from your whole account. Keep only the margin you are willing to lose in the UTA, and hold long-term coins outside it.

User reviews of support are mixed. The global entity is offshore, so a support ticket is your only route if something goes wrong. That is one more reason to keep a smaller balance on Bybit than you would with a regulated broker.

Bybit vs OKX, Kraken, Coinbase and Binance

Choose Bybit for low-cost perps and options outside the US, UK and Japan. Each alternative fits a different reader better:

In the EEA, Bybit EU's 0.25% spot taker fee and lack of derivatives take away most of the appeal, so compare it with other MiCAR-licensed exchanges. Dutch users are already being moved to MEXC under a Bybit EU partnership. In the UAE you can trade spot now, but perps are waiting on VARA approval.

Everywhere else Bybit operates, a trader placing many leveraged orders a month will struggle to find a cheaper entry tier than 0.02% maker / 0.055% taker.