Dubai, United Arab Emirates — October 13, 2026 — Chainwire

Bybit Co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou has outlined the latest stage of the company's expansion from a cryptocurrency exchange into what it calls The New Financial Platform, presenting new products and collaborations spanning both traditional and digital markets.

The updates were unveiled during Bybit's biannual "Keynote with Ben" session, this installment titled "Make Your Move." Held outside the usual studio format before a live audience, the keynote brought Zhou together with selected guests to discuss the convergence of financial markets, emerging technologies, and the products shaping the company's next phase.

The session covered a broad sweep of developments: the rollout of U.S. stock trading, the upcoming mStocks tokenized equity product built with Mantle, the IPO Express service introduced in June, continued growth in traditional-finance perpetuals, an expanding payments arm, and a series of new regulatory licenses secured during 2026.

Four Years of TradFi Expansion, With Stocks Now Live and mStocks Ahead

Four years after entering traditional finance with contracts for difference (CFDs) in 2022, Bybit has established itself as the largest crypto CFD platform, with trading volume reaching as much as $100 billion at its peak. On Oct. 12, the company pushed further into traditional markets with the launch of stock trading for eligible users, providing access to more than 1,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs. Users can trade using USDC, with fractional shares and 24/5 access covering U.S. pre-market, regular, and after-hours sessions. Funding equity trades in a stablecoin and extending access beyond the regular U.S. trading day ties stock trading directly into the same account rails as crypto, positioning the rollout as a bridge between two markets that have long operated on separate infrastructure.

Bybit is also developing mStocks in collaboration with Mantle, targeting a launch in November. The tokenized stock product is designed to be backed 1:1 by real stocks, with plans to support round-the-clock conversion between eligible stocks and mStocks on Bybit, as well as decentralized exchange trading through automated market maker (AMM) liquidity pools on Mantle. Converted mStocks are also expected to be transferable into Bybit's Unified Trading Account (UTA) for use as trading collateral, subject to applicable terms and conditions. Taken together, the design points to a product intended to carry traditional equities onto on-chain rails, where they can trade continuously and be reused inside DeFi-style liquidity pools rather than sitting in a brokerage account.

In June, Bybit launched IPO Express, giving eligible users access to selected IPO opportunities at the offering price through tokenized representations of the underlying securities. The service debuted with SpaceX and is designed to extend Bybit's access beyond secondary-market trading into selected primary-market opportunities.

The latest developments build on Bybit's expansion into perpetuals, pre-market products, foreign exchange, and options. Its TradFi offering now spans more than 600 products across equities, ETFs, indices, commodities, and FX. TradFi perpetuals have recorded more than $180 billion in trading volume, while recent additions include Forex Perps and Perp Options, an industry-first options product built on TradFi perpetuals. Bybit continues to develop new perpetual products linked to AI computing and commodities, extending its range of instruments beyond conventional crypto markets — and illustrating how derivative formats pioneered on crypto assets are being rebuilt around traditional and emerging underlying assets.

Extending the Platform Into Payments

Beyond trading and investing, Bybit has expanded its payments infrastructure to help customers move funds with greater flexibility. Bybit Pay and Bybit Card support crypto and fiat transfers, merchant payments, and everyday spending. The services now connect users with more than 5,000 merchants across more than 15 countries and support transfers to bank accounts and e-wallets, alongside QR payments and other payment services. Bybit has issued more than 4 million Bybit Cards, extending the platform's reach beyond financial markets into payments and spending. The payments layer connects trading balances to day-to-day financial activity, giving the platform a role beyond market hours and price exposure.

Security and Regulatory Infrastructure

The expansion has been accompanied by investment in security, compliance, and technology infrastructure. In the first half of 2026, Bybit said it intercepted more than 30,000 suspicious withdrawal requests, protecting users from more than $700 million in potential losses.

Bybit also secured five new licenses and regulatory approvals during 2026, across the European Union, the Cayman Islands, Indonesia, South Africa, and El Salvador. The company said these regulatory developments support its efforts to expand its presence across different markets, subject to local requirements — groundwork that underpins the cross-border rollout of equities, derivatives, and payments products.

In September, Bybit launched Bybit AI, a conversational assistant spanning trading, account management, and customer support, with further development planned around the platform's wider financial services.

"Bybit is all about giving you the speed and scale you need when you Make Your Move. We have brought trading, investing, payments and AI together, and we are continuing to add more markets and more ways to use them. We built the platform. Now it is about giving people the financial freedom to make their own move," said Ben Zhou, Co-founder and CEO of Bybit.

Building Beyond the Exchange

Four years after entering traditional finance, Bybit now combines crypto markets with stocks and ETFs, derivatives, commodities, FX, selected pre-IPO access, payments, and AI-powered services. The company's focus is increasingly on bringing these capabilities together within a single platform while continuing to expand market access, product depth, and the infrastructure supporting them. Near-term milestones to watch include the targeted November launch of mStocks, the further development of Bybit AI across the platform's wider financial services, and new perpetual products linked to AI computing and commodities.

For Bybit, the development of The New Financial Platform represents the next stage of its growth beyond crypto and into broader role across global financial markets. The company says it is trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide and describes its mission as building an intelligent platform that connects anyone, anywhere, to every financial opportunity, combining AI-powered technology, deep global liquidity, robust security, and transparent operations.

The full keynote is available here: