Bybit review

What Bybit is

On February 21, 2025, Bybit lost over 400,000 ETH and stETH, worth more than $1.4 billion, through a compromised multisig cold wallet. The FBI attributed the attack to the North Korean Lazarus Group. It was the largest single exchange hack in crypto history.

Within 72 hours, Bybit covered all losses from its own reserves. It resumed full withdrawals and published a detailed post-incident report. No user lost funds.

That stress test is more useful than any reserve claim on paper. An exchange that absorbs a $1.4 billion loss without halting withdrawals tells you something concrete about its balance sheet depth. Bybit launched in 2018 out of Dubai as a futures-first platform.

That original design intent is visible in every part of the interface today. Unlike Binance, which added futures onto an existing spot exchange, Bybit built the order entry and charting around perpetuals from the start. Margin management was also built for perps. See current Bybit open interest and 24h volume on PerpFinder.

Fees in detail

Bybit's fee schedule starts at 0.02% maker and 0.055% taker on USDT-margined perpetuals. The taker rate is 0.5 basis points above Binance and OKX at base level. VIP tiers cut these rates. The rates below come from the Bybit fee page, read 2026-09-23:

• VIP 0 (default): 0.02% maker, 0.055% taker
• VIP 1: 0.018% maker, 0.04% taker
• VIP 3: 0.014% maker, 0.035% taker
• VIP 5: 0.01% maker, 0.032% taker
• Top tier (Supreme VIP): 0.0% maker, 0.03% taker

Paying fees in MNT (Mantle) gives a 10% discount. For a $10,000 BTC/USDT trade opened and closed at market, base-rate taker round-trip is $11.00, vs $10.00 at Binance and OKX. At VIP 1, the taker rate is 0.04%, so the round trip falls to $8.00. Check current rates with the PerpFinder fee calculator.

For limit-order traders at standard tiers, the 0.5bp taker premium is roughly $5 per $100k in traded volume. Bybit's pair count (400+) exceeds Binance's (350+). Many traders absorb the small fee premium to access more altcoin perp markets.

Security and proof of reserves

After the February 2025 Lazarus Group attack, Bybit overhauled its multi-signature custody controls. It ran independent security audits and published the findings. The exchange launched LazarusBounty — offering 10% of recovered funds for useful intelligence — and cross-chain analysis tools.

Hacken audits Bybit's Proof of Reserves monthly. Bybit publishes the ratios on its proof-of-reserves page, which builds the numbers in the browser. PerpFinder could not read those ratios from the page source on 2026-09-04, so this review states no ratio. Users can verify balance inclusion through Merkle tree proofs on the proof-of-reserves page.

Bybit Virtual Asset Platform Operator LLC holds a Virtual Asset Platform Operator licence from the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), which Bybit announced on October 9, 2025. Bybit is not on the Dubai VARA public register. Bybit also lists a CySEC registration in Cyprus and a Digital Assets Exchange registration in Kazakhstan.

Bybit does not serve the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong or the Chinese Mainland. No FCA or CFTC licenses.

The post-hack security overhaul brought Bybit's documented stack to a detail level most rivals never publish. That openness, after a worst-case event, is the best evidence on how the platform handles reserve stress.

Leverage and pairs

Over 400 perpetual pairs — USDT-margined, USDC-margined, and inverse (coin-margined) — covering more contracts than Binance (350+) and OKX (300+). Leverage reaches 150x on BTC/USDT (Bybit API, read 2026-09-23). It steps down for larger positions and on less liquid contracts.

Unified trading account mode holds margin across spot, futures, and options without sub-account transfers. Portfolio margin nets correlated positions, cutting capital needs for multi-leg strategies. European-style options on BTC and ETH are listed. The TradingView charting and one-click order entry are consistently rated among the cleaner builds at this tier.

Grid bots and DCA bots run natively. Copy trading lets users filter master traders by ROI, max drawdown, PnL, and follower count. The Launchpool provides early token access through staking.

Who Bybit is for

Futures-focused traders who want the widest pair list and a purpose-built futures interface: Bybit's design is the clearest answer in the CEX space. The pair count lead over Binance and OKX is real. The interface was built for this use case rather than adapted to it.

Traders who want the absolute lowest taker fee at small account tiers: Binance, OKX, and Hyperliquid all beat Bybit's 0.055% baseline. The gap closes once VIP tiers apply.

Anyone re-evaluating the 2025 hack: the event is documented and resolved. No user lost funds. The reserve and safety evidence since then is arguably stronger than before the incident.

How it compares

In PerpFinder's daily snapshot on 2026-09-04, Bybit's 24-hour perp volume was 23% of Binance's and 58% of OKX's. That is one dated observation, not a trend. Bybit's BTC order book is deep enough for $200k market orders with low slippage.

What does the 0.5bp taker premium cost in practice? $11.00 per $10k round-trip at base rates, against $10.00 on Binance and OKX — and $9.00 on Hyperliquid. Use the cost comparison tool for live figures.

The premium is a real cost, not an argument against Bybit. But at $50k positions, it adds $5 per round trip vs Binance, worth factoring into high-frequency strategies.

Bybit's copy trading module and grid/DCA bot ecosystem are both native with no third-party API setup. The Launchpool gives access to early token distributions. For traders who want a full futures suite without Binance's product sprawl, Bybit is the reference platform in this comparison.