Bybit: global trading, EU accounts and current restrictions

Bybit combines a global spot and derivatives interface with separately contracted regional services. Its Unified Trading Account brings several trading products into a shared account framework, while Funding Accounts support asset movements and payment functions.[11]

Bybit EU is a separate Austrian provider with its own transaction model, fee schedule and custody contract. Global perpetuals or options shown on bybit.com should not be assumed available through a bybit.eu account.[6]

The EU Exchange Agreement dated 19 October 2026 calls its displayed market interface a Synthetic Liquidity View. It aggregates pricing from liquidity providers or exchanges; it does not directly match customers’ orders with one another. The agreement describes market orders, limit instructions and conditional orders, and a 5% market-order price boundary with unfilled quantities cancelled where outside the permitted range. The customer contracts directly with Bybit EU as counterparty.[7]

The global Retail Price Improvement mechanism is also relevant when comparing screen liquidity with API data. Approved market makers can place RPI orders, which match eligible non-algorithmic orders but not orders sent through OpenAPI. These orders are excluded from the API order book and can appear on the trading screen, subject to its visibility rules. A displayed manual-trading opportunity therefore need not be available to the same algorithm through the public book.[15]

These global rates exclude special zones, pair-specific arrangements and regional tariffs. The 1 September derivatives announcement changed Pro and market-maker schedules while explicitly leaving retail VIP pricing unchanged; it is not evidence that the ordinary retail 0.020% / 0.055% rates ended. The global fee page tells customers to use their verified account’s My Fee Rate view for the applicable schedule.[3][1]

The EU schedule changed at 11:00 UTC on 5 October 2026 to a unified rate. It supersedes the older EU help table that separately showed 0.10% maker and 0.25% taker. At the current base rate, a EUR 2,000 purchase costs EUR 5 and a EUR 2,000 sale costs EUR 5, totalling EUR 10. This assumes unchanged tier and eligible ordinary spot transactions; spread, slippage, price movement, funding and transfer charges are excluded.[2]

For comparison of the global derivative charging basis, two taker executions of 10,000 USDT notional each incur 11 USDT at 0.055% per execution. A maker opening and taker closing of those notionals incur 7.50 USDT. These fees are charged on notional, not merely the margin committed. They exclude periodic funding, borrowing, market spread, slippage and any applicable forced-repayment charges.[1]

Options fees use the lower of the applicable percentage of the underlying index price and the stated premium-based cap, multiplied by contract size. The standard trading-fee cap is 7% of the option price, with separate Pro caps. Exercised options can incur a delivery charge; the guide exempts daily options and applies asset-specific rates and a separate cap. Consequently, the headline 0.02% / 0.03% is not simply a percentage of the premium paid.[39]

Funding intervals differ by contract and can change dynamically; the guide describes switching to hourly settlement when a rate reaches its prescribed limit. Closing within five seconds of the funding timestamp does not guarantee exclusion from that cycle. For an illustrative 10,000 USDT position and a positive 0.01% rate, the long pays 1 USDT at one assessment. The rate here is an assumption, not a quoted current funding rate or a daily return forecast.[18]

The EU withdrawal guide requires individual verification, email authentication and Google 2FA. It gives fees and expected timing on the selected route, allows for up to five business days in exceptional channel delays, and says successfully submitted fiat withdrawals cannot be cancelled. Deposit availability does not prove the same currency and method are available for cashing out.[20]

An available-looking balance can still be locked. Bybit EU’s Funding Account guide includes Amount Pending Release in its displayed available balance even though blockchain or risk-review restrictions prevent crypto withdrawals, internal transfers, fiat withdrawals and card use. The global UTA also calculates margin value using collateral ratios and unrealised profit/loss, so its displayed converted margin is not the same as spendable dollars or transferable coin.[21][11]

The custody summary describes continuing reconciliation, additional manual review for higher-value or higher-risk withdrawals and emergency return procedures when normal withdrawal facilities are unavailable for a prolonged period. A routine maintenance interruption is not automatically an emergency under that policy.[9]

The general risk disclosure says crypto investments do not receive government compensation-scheme protection.[6]

The Rewards agreement dated 19 October 2026 changes ownership on acceptance of a subscription: Bybit EU takes full title to the lent assets and can use them for its own account. The subscriber retains a contractual repayment claim rather than an ownership or security interest in those assets. The agreement expressly says the subscribed assets fall outside MiCA client-asset safeguards. It should not be described as ordinary safeguarded custody with an added guaranteed yield.[10]

Proof of Reserves supplies evidence about specified holdings and reported customer liabilities at a point in time. It does not by itself establish every group obligation, off-balance-sheet exposure or the legal treatment of a particular regional customer. The September figures are attributed to Bybit’s published report summary; they are not presented as this profile’s independent audit of reserves.[28]

The FBI attributed the theft of approximately USD 1.5 billion from Bybit on or about 21 February 2025 to North Korea. Bybit’s contemporaneous chronology described an Ethereum cold-wallet incident, continued withdrawal processing and efforts to cover the asset gap using loans, deposits and purchases. Replenishing assets available to meet customer obligations is different from recovering the stolen coins. The incident remains material custody history even after later reserve reports show coverage.[26][27]

The derivatives insurance fund is a trading-loss pool, not general insurance on customer custody. The ADL mechanism can reduce opposing profitable or highly leveraged positions when specified insurance-pool stress conditions are reached. Selection uses the platform’s ranking, and affected positions can settle at the system’s bankruptcy price rather than the displayed market price. The current guide also specifies maker/taker fees for the affected sides. A profitable position can therefore be reduced without its holder choosing an ordinary closing trade.[38]

The 16 October global restrictions page lists, among others, the United States, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, alongside sanctioned jurisdictions and specified Ukrainian territories. It separately restricts Dubai for the named UAE operator. This is a selected summary rather than a universal country list for every Bybit entity. Genuine residence changes require accurate documentation and continued eligibility; the UK notice does not offer a route around the residence restriction.[37][4]

The EU retail General Terms require adult natural persons acting for themselves, habitual EEA residence, identity verification and exclusion of US-reportable persons as defined there. Separate business-client terms govern institutional admission.[6]

The current EU subaccount documentation identifies eligible EEA residents excluding Malta, consistent with the host-state list inspected in ESMA.[33][5]

Bybit EU’s published complaint process covers Bybit EU GmbH and Bybit Payments GmbH. Submission is free; it requests the UID, registered email, relevant order or transaction identifier, issue description and supporting documents. It provides a five-working-day initial response, a fifteen-working-day target final decision in most cases, and a maximum thirty-five-working-day period in exceptional cases, with an interim explanation. These are provider process commitments, not observed resolution times.[25]

The complaint guide names Austrian conciliation bodies and the FMA among external routes. A regulator complaint and a private compensation claim serve different purposes; use the route appropriate to the entity and issue, retaining the final response and transaction evidence. The policy also contains an EU Online Dispute Resolution link that is not relied on here as a current escalation route.[25]

The ESMA row for Bybit EU GmbH lists custody, exchange for funds, exchange for other crypto-assets, placing and transfer services. It does not list operation of a trading platform. Its LEI, 5299005V5GBSN2A4C303, identifies the entity; it is not a licence number. Crypto-service permissions do not establish access to global derivatives.[5]

Global and regional agreements can name different providers. The global card agreement’s reference to Bybit Technology Limited does not establish a universal contracting entity or compensation arrangement for every bybit.com service.[40]

The user, trading-volume and reserve figures measure different things. Registered reach is not funded activity; derivative turnover can exceed the collateral committed; a reserve snapshot is not corporate revenue. These company disclosures support including Bybit among widely used large venues, while a precise ranking against other exchanges would require a common period, product definition and independently comparable dataset.[29][28]

Operator

Bybit group, with Bybit EU GmbH for the EEA route and separately named global and regional providers

Exchange model

Centralised

Service scope

Global UTA and EU principal-exchange services are described separately; regional derivative availability is not assumed.

Client types

Retail clients; Professional clients; Institutional clients

Pricing publication

Public and quoted pricing

Pricing scope

Global ordinary retail schedules remain distinct from the EU single-rate schedule introduced 5 October 2026. Account-specific payment charges require the route preview.

Funding scope

Crypto transfers and security holds, plus selected European fiat deposit and withdrawal conditions.

Custody and asset handling

EU hosted custody, title-transfer Rewards, dated group reserves and the February 2025 theft are distinguished.

Client eligibility

Residence, identity and product admission apply. UK restrictions start 21 October 2026; Bybit EU serves admitted EEA users excluding Malta.

Support

Official help and EU formal complaints with stated five-, fifteen- and thirty-five-working-day stages.

Authorisation and registration scope

ESMA verifies Bybit EU GmbH for five crypto-service categories, excluding trading-platform operation. No universal global licence or derivative authorisation is inferred.

Exchange metadata checked 20 Oct 2026Source 7Source 5Source 2Source 1Source 8Source 4Source 25

The central export page can batch the main account and up to one hundred subaccounts, with a one-year range per export and temporary seven-day download links. The same help article contains inconsistent three- and five-year retrospective availability statements, so this profile does not promise a fixed maximum history period. Check the date picker and retain downloaded records. Reconcile actual fills, fees, funding, borrowing and transfers rather than treating the account-value snapshot as a complete trade ledger.[34]

Bybit distinguishes Demo Trading from Testnet. Demo uses simulated funds and main-platform price movements without placing its executed orders into the real book; Testnet has a separate market environment. Both have documented API routes, but the simulation does not demonstrate the fill quality, slippage or market impact of a live order. The distinction matters when a strategy appears to execute reliably during practice.[35]