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Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 2, 2026, Chainwire
Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, looks back to 2025 with mixed challenges and achievements. The exchange chronicles its expansion from 50 million to 80 million registered users, global advancements in regulation and compliance, and trading highs across all metrics amid market challenges. Despite the February hacking incident, Bybit remained the second largest centralized exchange, with 2025 marking the year it strengthened its ecosystem and solidified its position for future growth.
Global regulatory alignment
In July, Bybit’s Vienna-based operation achieved full compliance with MiCA in the relevant EEA countries via local authorizations in Austria. In the MENA region’s blockchain and crypto hub, Bybit received the UAE’s first SCA virtual asset platform operator license in October, enabling comprehensive trading, custody and fiat services across the country. Bybit also recently relaunched its services in the UK after a 2-year hiatus, now offering spot and P2P crypto trading to UK users by partnering with FCA-regulated Archax to comply with strict financial promotion rules, providing access to around 100 trading pairs.
Security: from setback to force
In February 2025, Bybit faced a major cyberattack with approximately $1.4 billion worth of ETH stolen, in an incident linked to the North Korean Lazarus Group. The attack proved to be the ultimate stress test for the exchange as it moved from defense to recovery and growth.
The platform guaranteed zero loss of customer funds through its 1:1 reserve guarantee, restored reserves within 72 hours thanks to partner support, and processed over 350,000 withdrawal requests in the first 12 hours. The immediate measures taken not only helped Bybit avoid the crisis but also prevented potential contagion effects across the crypto ecosystem.
Subsequently, Bybit recovered BTC liquidity to $13 million per day in 30 days, surpassing industry benchmarks by Kaiko. In a Glassnode report, analysts noted that ETH trading volume on Bybiy reached a new daily high of $8.5 billion despite the hack during the summer rally, reflecting the community’s unwavering confidence as well as Bybit’s operational resilience and financial depth.
The breach also prompted Bybit’s security working group to evolve and build new infrastructure that contributes to industry-wide security. A series of more than 50 security upgrades were carried out after 9 security audits in one month, setting new benchmarks of trust. With the creation of the Lazarus Bounty program, Bybit is offering an open invitation for experts to join the hunt and potentially help other victims of crypto-related cybercrime.
Bybit Spot: Early Access Strategy, Year-Round Breakout Listings
In 2025, Bybit Spot consolidated its listing strategies to effectively identify and list quality assets ahead of hype and market saturation. The platform excelled in early discovery and advanced access for its users, connecting Bybit traders to emerging opportunities found only on Bybit. In January, TRUMP saw gains of up to 548% on Bybit. Community-led DeFi project TUNA surged 2,637% on its first day of trading on Bybit, and MET reached 255% on its first day. These results demonstrate Bybit Spot’s forward-looking listing strategy to reveal early market trends.
In the area of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, Bybit Spot has also remained at the forefront of the industry. The platform pioneered integrating RWA assets such as XAUT, with the asset achieving 127% gains, and launched xStocks for on-chain US stock trading, leading the trend of tokenized stocks. Additionally, Bybit Spot has generated up to $40 million in total rewards through projects such as NXPC and NIGHT, harnessing market momentum into tangible returns for users.
With strategies focused on ahead-of-the-curve market entry, early access, and user-centric mechanics, Bybit Spot concluded an exciting year for traders.
Trading volume, hybrid trading and ecosystem strategy
Throughout 2025, Bybit maintained its second place among exchanges in terms of monthly trading volume. This momentum continued through the relatively quiet winter trading season and broader market downturn, recording 24-hour spot trading volume of $9.1 billion on December 22, 2025.
Beyond the numbers, Bybit has also stepped up its global strategies and ecosystem play. Now supports everything on-chain and off-chain within a single interface:
- The reworked Bybit Alpha allows Bybit users to navigate on-chain opportunities, discover the most popular tokens, and explore liquidity farming without leaving the Bybit app.
- Parreala Solana DEX incubated by Bybit and launched in early October 2025, surpassed $1 billion in cumulative trading volume in 10 weeks, with $10.88 million in TVL and top 10 Solana DEX rankings for 30-day fees, revenue, and support for over 40 assets, including tokenized RWA.
- Launched in May 2025, BybitTradFi debuted as the first major CEX platform to integrate gold, forex, global indices, commodities and over 100 stock CFDs with up to 500x leverage for eligible users. In September, Bybit TradFi introduced 24/5 trading for over 20 stock CFDs, including tech giants like NVDA, TSLA, and AAPL, to bring TradFi’s operating hours in line with crypto’s 24/7 model.
- Bybit also integrated xStocks in June 2025 with dozens of US stocks and ETFs tokenized through Backed Finance, offering 24/7 settlement on Solana for global access.
- Building on regulatory progress in 2025, Bybit Institutional experienced substantial institutional growth with asset inflows increasing from $1.3 billion in the third quarter to $2.88 billion in the fourth quarter, while its wealth management the operation’s assets under management (AUM) quintupled from $40 million to $200 million.
- Save time continues to offer innovative and diverse products, including Mantle Vault, a stable chain yield asset management product optimized for APR performance, which reached $52 million in assets under management within 7 days of launch.
- Mantle’s strategic partnership with Bybit In 2025, MNT was introduced as a multi-functional asset supporting fee reductions, institutional leverage trading, RWA tokenization and high-yield staking opportunities on Bybit, while Bybit, Mantle and other ecosystem partners collaborated to provide institutional-grade DeFi liquidity solutions.
- More than 2 million Bybit card users and the expansion of the footprint Payment by debit demonstrate the strength of Bybit’s ecosystem, enabling users to get the most out of their digital assets every day, from buying a morning coffee to creating memories at Tomorrowland Brasil.
Whether traders are building a diversified portfolio in TradFi, gold, commodities and crypto, seeking frictionless on-chain yield through Bybit Alpha and Bybit Earn, or opting for the fully on-chain experience in Byreal, the Bybit ecosystem has it all.
WSOT: a record year
Bybit’s flagship trading competition, the World Series of Trading (WSOT) 2025, featured a $10 million USDT prize pool, attracting record participation that earned Bybit a Guinness World Record title for the most participants in an online trading competition within 24 hours, with 71,765 unique active participants on August 27. YoY) and 520,451 traders from 202 countries and regions.
At this year’s WSOT, 300,000 USDT was pledged to blockchain education through the Bybit Rising Fund, providing local communities with scholarships, hackathons and training.
Through inventive resilience and a collective growth mindset, Bybit made 2025 a year of quiet strength, celebrating over 80 million users by the end of 2025.
About Bybit
Bybit is the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of over 80 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit is redefining openness in the decentralized world by creating a simpler, open and equal ecosystem for all. With a strong focus on Web3, Bybit strategically partners with leading blockchain protocols to provide robust infrastructure and drive on-chain innovation. Renowned for its secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive user experience, and advanced blockchain tools, Bybit bridges the gap between TradFi and DeFi, enabling builders, creators, and enthusiasts to unlock the full potential of Web3. Discover the future of decentralized finance at Bybit.com.
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