Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 13th, 2026, Chainwire — Bybit Co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou has laid out the latest stage of the company's expansion from a crypto exchange into what it calls The New Financial Platform, unveiling new products and collaborations spanning traditional and digital markets.

The updates were presented during Bybit's biannual "Keynote with Ben" session, titled "Make Your Move," in which Zhou discussed the convergence of financial markets and the company's approach to building for that shift. Breaking from the usual studio format, the keynote was held before a live audience, bringing Zhou together with selected guests to discuss changes in the financial landscape, new technologies, and the products shaping Bybit's next phase.

Four Years of TradFi, 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. The launch reflects a broader industry trend in which crypto-native platforms have been adding equities exposure and extended trading sessions to bridge digital-asset and traditional markets.

Bybit is also developing mStocks in collaboration with Mantle, with a targeted 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. The November launch will offer a first, concrete look at how tokenized equities function within Bybit's ecosystem, particularly the 1:1 backing and round-the-clock conversion mechanics in practice.

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 reach 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, and recent additions include Forex Perps and Perp Options, an industry-first options product built on TradFi perpetuals. Bybit is continuing to develop new perpetual products linked to AI computing and commodities, extending its range of instruments beyond conventional crypto markets. Taken together, the figures show how much of Bybit's recent growth has come from instruments sitting outside conventional crypto markets, reinforcing the single-platform approach the company describes.

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 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 use beyond financial markets into payments and spending.

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.

The company also secured five new licenses and regulatory approvals during 2026, spanning the European Union, the Cayman Islands, Indonesia, South Africa, and El Salvador. According to Bybit, these regulatory developments support its efforts to expand its presence across different markets, subject to local requirements. Licenses of this kind are generally a precondition for offering regulated products in a given market, which ties the 2026 approvals directly to the product expansion outlined above.

In September, Bybit launched Bybit AI, a conversational assistant covering 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 TradFi, 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.

For Bybit, the development of The New Financial Platform represents the next stage of its growth beyond crypto and into a broader role across global financial markets. With U.S. stock trading now live for eligible users and mStocks targeted for November, the coming months will provide a first read on how these pieces function together in practice as a single financial experience.

The full keynote is available at:

About Bybit

Bybit describes itself as The New Financial Platform, built on the belief that every person should have access to every financial opportunity on earth. According to the company, more than 80 million users worldwide rely on its ecosystem, which brings together investing, trading, payments, and wealth-building in a single platform combining AI-powered technology, deep global liquidity, robust security, and transparent operations.