The February 2025 hack
On February 21, 2025, attackers compromised Safe Wallet infrastructure used by Bybit during a routine transfer and stole approximately 400,000 ETH — roughly $1.4-1.5 billion at the time, the largest crypto exchange hack on record. The U.S. FBI and multiple blockchain-analytics firms attributed the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group.
To Bybit's credit, the response was fast: the exchange fully replenished its reserves within 72 hours through emergency bridge funding from Galaxy Digital, FalconX, and Wintermute, and no customer ultimately lost funds. That's a genuinely strong recovery — but the scale of the breach itself is still the single most important fact to know about this exchange before depositing significant funds here.
About Bybit
Bybit was founded in 2018 by CEO Ben Zhou. Its operational headquarters moved from Singapore to Dubai in 2022, while it's incorporated in the British Virgin Islands — both real, non-contradictory facts about where the company operates versus where it's legally domiciled. Bybit is widely recognized as one of the largest exchanges in the world by trading volume, particularly in derivatives and perpetual futures, though we can't independently confirm an exact daily figure or coin count from public sources.
Fees
Bybit charges a flat 0.1% maker / 0.1% taker fee on standard spot trading, in line with many large exchanges, with lower rates typically available at higher volume tiers.
Regulatory standing
Bybit received a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization under the EU's MiCA framework in May 2025, a genuine current regulatory positive. That sits alongside real historical friction: it exited the UK market in 2021 following a restriction from the Financial Conduct Authority, is not available to customers in the United States, and settled a $228 million lawsuit from the FTX bankruptcy estate in October 2024 over withdrawal-practice allegations dating to FTX's 2022 collapse. None of these are currently active enforcement actions, but they're part of a real track record worth weighing alongside the February 2025 hack.
Bybit Details
- Maker/taker fees: 0.10% / 0.10%
- Founded: 2018
- Security incident history: Yes — February 2025, ~$1.4-1.5B stolen, fully covered within 72 hours
- U.S. access: Not available
- EU status: MiCA CASP-authorized since May 2025