Key takeaways

  • Bybit CEO Ben Zhou used the biannual "Keynote with Ben" session, titled "Make Your Move", to frame the exchange's push into what the company calls The New Financial Platform.
  • Stock trading went live on Oct. 12 for eligible users, covering more than 1,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs, with USDC settlement, fractional shares and 24/5 access.
  • A tokenized stock product, mStocks, is being developed with Mantle and targeted for November, backed 1:1 by real stocks.
  • Bybit says it intercepted more than 30,000 suspicious withdrawal requests in the first half of 2026, protecting users from more than $700 million in potential losses, and secured five new licenses and regulatory approvals across the European Union, the Cayman Islands, Indonesia, South Africa and El Salvador during 2026.

What happened

Bybit Co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou presented the latest stage of the company's expansion from a crypto exchange into The New Financial Platform during the keynote, held outside the usual studio format in front of a live audience. The session covered new products and collaborations spanning traditional and digital markets.

The most concrete item is the launch of stock trading for eligible users on Oct. 12, giving access to more than 1,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs. Trades can be made in USDC, with fractional shares and 24/5 access covering U.S. pre-market, regular and after-hours sessions.

Bybit is also developing mStocks with Mantle, targeted for November. The tokenized stock product is designed to be backed 1:1 by real stocks, with plans for round-the-clock conversion between eligible stocks and mStocks on Bybit, plus decentralized exchange trading through automated market maker liquidity pools on Mantle. Converted mStocks are expected to be transferable into Bybit's Unified Trading Account for use as trading collateral, subject to applicable terms and conditions.

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

Market context

Bybit entered traditional finance with contracts for difference in 2022. Four years on, the company says it has become the largest crypto CFD platform, with trading volume reaching as much as $100 billion at its peak.

The 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, described as an industry-first options product built on TradFi perpetuals. Bybit says it is continuing to develop new perpetual products linked to AI computing and commodities.

Payments have expanded alongside trading. Bybit Pay and Bybit Card support crypto and fiat transfers, merchant payments and everyday spending, connecting users with more than 5,000 merchants across 15+ countries and supporting transfers to bank accounts and e-wallets, alongside QR payments. Bybit has issued more than 4 million Bybit Cards.

On the infrastructure side, Bybit launched Bybit AI in September as a conversational assistant across trading, account management and customer support, with further development planned around the platform's wider financial services.

Why it matters

The keynote is a press-release format, so the claims originate from Bybit itself and have not been independently verified here. Still, the product roadmap points to a consistent strategic direction: rather than competing only on crypto spot and derivatives, Bybit is assembling a stack that lets users hold, trade and spend across asset classes inside one account.

Two elements stand out. First, the mStocks design ties tokenized equities to Mantle liquidity and to Bybit's Unified Trading Account as collateral. If it ships as described, it would blur the line between a brokerage product and a derivatives margin system, which raises questions about how collateral is valued and what happens during off-hours. Second, IPO Express moves Bybit into primary-market access, a segment where allocation, eligibility and pricing mechanics are typically controlled by underwriters rather than exchanges.

The compliance numbers matter for a different reason. Bybit says it secured five new licenses and regulatory approvals across the European Union, the Cayman Islands, Indonesia, South Africa and El Salvador during 2026, and that it intercepted more than 30,000 suspicious withdrawal requests in the first half of 2026. Licensing and fraud interception are the kind of operational detail that determines whether a multi-market platform can keep adding products without running into jurisdictional walls.

For readers, the practical question is not whether the platform is expanding, but which parts of that expansion are live today versus planned. Stock trading is live for eligible users. mStocks is targeted for November and remains subject to terms and conditions. IPO Express launched in June. The rest of the TradFi, payments and AI lineup is a mix of existing products and stated intentions.

What to watch

  • Whether mStocks ships in November and how the 1:1 backing and round-the-clock conversion are actually implemented.
  • How Bybit's Unified Trading Account handles mStocks as collateral, and under what terms.
  • Whether IPO Express extends beyond SpaceX to other offerings, and how eligibility is determined.
  • How the five new licenses and approvals translate into market access under local requirements.
  • Whether the AI computing and commodities perpetuals move from development into listed products.

Bybit's own framing is that it has brought trading, investing, payments and AI together and will keep adding markets. The company says it is trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide. Those are Bybit's figures. The next phase will be judged on delivery rather than on the keynote stage.