Bybit

Bybit is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange that ranked as the world's second-largest by trading volume as of 2025-2026. Founded in March 2018 and headquartered in Dubai, the exchange serves over 80 million registered users across more than 160 countries. Its product suite spans spot trading, derivatives, structured earn products, copy trading, automated bots, and a non-custodial Web3 wallet -- making it one of the broadest-coverage exchanges in the industry. Within the Solana ecosystem specifically, Bybit is the issuer of bbSOL, the first exchange-backed liquid staking token on Solana, and the operator of xStocks tokenized equities settled on the Solana network.

Founding and Background

Bybit was founded by Ben Zhou, who serves as CEO, with a mission to build a professional-grade trading platform. The exchange initially focused on perpetual contracts and derivatives before broadening into spot markets, earn products, and on-chain Web3 services. It reached 10 million users by 2022, 20 million by 2023, and crossed 80 million users by the end of 2025 -- a trajectory that reflected both organic growth and aggressive geographic and product expansion during crypto's bull cycle.

The exchange operates through regional subsidiaries, including Bybit EU GmbH, which obtained a MiCAR (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) authorization from Austria's Financial Market Authority in May 2025. This license allows Bybit to provide regulated crypto-asset services across all 29 countries of the European Economic Area. Separately, in October 2025, Bybit received the UAE's first SCA (Securities and Commodities Authority) Virtual Asset Platform Operator License, enabling full trading, custody, and fiat services in the UAE. Bybit is not licensed to operate in the United States and explicitly excludes US users from its platform.

Trading Products

Bybit's core business is derivatives trading. The exchange lists over 790 derivative pairs, including perpetual contracts and fixed-term futures. Perpetuals carry a maker fee of 0.02% and taker fee of 0.055%. Spot trading is available at 0.1% per side. The platform also offers USDT-settled options on major assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

The exchange introduced Bybit TradFi, a product category offering contract-for-difference (CFD) exposure to gold, forex pairs, global equity indices, and commodities -- with leverage available to eligible non-US users. In June 2025, Bybit launched xStocks, a tokenized equity product offering exposure to dozens of US-listed stocks and ETFs via Backed Finance, with 24/7 settlement processed on the Solana blockchain.

Advanced trading tools include a Unified Trading Account structure (allowing cross-margin across spot and derivatives), algorithmic bots, conditional orders, copy trading with performance analytics, and a demo trading environment for paper trading.

Earn and Structured Products

Bybit Earn encompasses a range of yield-bearing products: flexible and fixed-term savings, dual-asset structured notes (which pay a premium in exchange for directional exposure), principal-protected products, and on-chain staking. Bybit also integrated FUIDL, a token backed by a AAA-rated Money Market Fund via Finloop, offering hourly settlement as a cash-management alternative within the exchange.

Bybit Web3 and Solana Integration

Bybit Web3 is a non-custodial wallet and DeFi gateway embedded within the Bybit ecosystem. As of 2025, the Web3 wallet had accumulated over 10 million users and maintained integrations with more than 20 ecosystem partners. Bybit Alpha, a feature within the Web3 interface, provides simplified access to on-chain token launches and early-stage projects, handling wallet mechanics on behalf of users while they retain on-chain exposure.

Bybit's deepest commitment to the Solana ecosystem is bbSOL, launched in September 2024 in partnership with Sanctum, Kamino Finance, Orca, and Solayer. bbSOL is the world's first exchange-backed liquid staking token (LST) for Solana. Users stake SOL through Bybit Web3 and receive bbSOL tokens in return, which can be deployed across DeFi protocols while the underlying SOL earns staking yield. Returns on bbSOL accrue from three sources: base Solana network staking rewards, MEV (maximal extractable value) rewards from Bybit's optimized validator nodes, and liquidity mining incentives from providing liquidity through Sanctum. bbSOL advertises APY of up to 8%, though actual returns vary with network conditions. Token holders can use bbSOL across eight Bybit Exchange products and eight Solana DeFi integrations simultaneously, enabling layered yield stacking without sacrificing liquidity.

Within the broader Solana LST landscape, bbSOL is notable for bridging institutional CEX liquidity with DeFi yield infrastructure. The Sanctum partnership positions bbSOL inside Sanctum's LST-to-LST swap routing, giving it immediate liquidity depth. Kamino Finance and Orca integrations allow bbSOL to be used as collateral for lending or as a liquidity pool asset. Solayer's restaking integration added a further yield layer for early adopters.

The February 2025 Security Breach

On February 21, 2025, Bybit suffered the largest cryptocurrency theft in recorded history. Attackers subsequently attributed with high confidence to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking collective, stole approximately 401,000 ETH worth roughly $1.5 billion from an exchange-controlled Ethereum cold wallet during a routine transfer to a warm wallet.

The attack was a supply-chain compromise. Malicious JavaScript was injected into resources served from the AWS S3 bucket of Safe{Wallet}, a smart contract wallet provider Bybit used for cold storage management. The injection occurred two days before the attack. During the routine transfer, Bybit's signers saw a legitimate-looking signing interface, but the underlying transaction instructions had been tampered with to grant the attacker control of the cold wallet. The attack did not exploit Bybit's own infrastructure directly.

Bybit sourced replacement funds through industry partners within 72 hours, maintained a 1:1 reserve ratio throughout, and publicly confirmed that no user funds were lost. Hacken, Bybit's independent Proof of Reserves auditor, confirmed a reserve ratio above 100% in its February 26, 2025 audit -- five days after the breach. Following the incident, Bybit hardened its wallet architecture, reinforced monitoring systems, expanded its PoR reporting to cover additional tokens, and added new account security controls including passkeys and withdrawal lock features. Monthly Hacken PoR audits, which began in June 2024, have continued since.

Proof of Reserves and Regulatory Standing

Bybit publishes ongoing Proof of Reserves reports independently audited by Hacken. The PoR covers more than ten tokens and confirms reserve ratios above 100% for all covered assets. xStock assets were added as eligible collateral across margin trading, crypto loans, and institutional lending services. Bybit appointed Peter Loo as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer in August 2026 to strengthen its global regulatory strategy. Its regulated entities include MiCAR-authorized Bybit EU GmbH in Austria and the UAE SCA-licensed entity, with further regional licenses under development.

Position Within the Solana Ecosystem

Bybit's relevance to Solana investors operates on several levels. At the most fundamental level, the exchange offers SOL spot trading, futures, and options with deep liquidity. More distinctively, bbSOL provides a bridge between Bybit's exchange user base and native Solana DeFi -- enabling the exchange's registered users to deploy SOL into on-chain yield strategies without leaving the Bybit product environment. xStocks on Solana represents a second integration point, tokenizing traditional finance assets on the Solana network and leveraging its settlement speed and low transaction costs for 24/7 global access. These product choices reflect a broader institutional acknowledgment of Solana as a preferred settlement layer for next-generation financial products.