Is Bybit Safe? What We Verified on Licenses, Reserves and Country Access

Bybit is safe in a narrower sense than a single score can capture. It has operated out of Singapore since 2018^††, requires identity verification on every account^†, and runs spot, futures, margin, staking and copy trading on one platform^† — but we could not find a Bybit registration with the SEC or FinCEN in the US, a securities regulator in Canada, or ASIC or AUSTRAC in Australia. Bybit's own United Kingdom announcement states directly that it is "not authorised, regulated, or registered" by the FCA. Bybit does publish help-center pages titled "Proof of Reserves" and "Insurance Fund," but neither page states a specific reserve ratio or exactly what losses the fund covers, as far as we could confirm. This article checks licenses, custody claims, country restrictions and Bybit's own 2025 security statement one at a time, with sources and dates, instead of answering "is Bybit safe" as one yes/no question.

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RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

Is Bybit Regulated in the US, UK, Canada or Australia?

No, not in any of the four markets this article covers, and Bybit says so about at least one of them itself. Checking Bybit's own December 2025 UK launch announcement (bybit.com, checked 2026-09-13), the wording is direct: "Bybit provides services in the United Kingdom through arrangements designed to meet applicable FCA financial promotion rules and is not authorised, regulated, or registered by the FCA. Cryptoasset services are not covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme." That is Bybit describing its own UK status, not a third party's guess.

For the US and Canada, Bybit's restricted-countries page (checked 2026-09-13) lists both as excluded jurisdictions outright, alongside mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore itself, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Uzbekistan, Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine, Sevastopol, Sudan and Syria — so a US or Canadian license question doesn't come up; Bybit isn't offering the regulated product to residents there. For Australia, we found no ASIC or AUSTRAC registration, and Australia isn't on the excluded list either — an unresolved gap, not a confirmed "no."

Does Bybit Publish Proof of Reserves?

Bybit maintains a help-center page titled "Proof of Reserves" (bybit.com, checked 2026-09-13), so the page itself is real. What we could not confirm from it is the part that matters for a safety check: a stated reserve ratio, a named verification method such as a Merkle-tree audit, or a specific "checked as of" date. Coinbase, for contrast, states proof-of-reserves as a security practice on its own site^† — a clearer starting point than a page whose method we could not pin down. Until Bybit's page shows a verifiable method we can point to directly, treat "Bybit has a proof-of-reserves page" and "Bybit has published proof of reserves we could verify" as two different claims — the first is true, the second is not something we could confirm.

What Does Bybit's Insurance Fund Actually Cover?

Bybit also runs a help-center page for an "Insurance Fund" (bybit.com, checked 2026-09-13). Based on what we could read there, this is the standard derivatives-exchange mechanism: a pool that covers the gap when a liquidated futures position closes at a worse price than its bankruptcy price, so the shortfall doesn't get socialized across other traders through auto-deleveraging. That's useful for futures traders, but it is not the same thing as a fund that reimburses users after a platform-wide security breach, and Bybit's page, as far as we could confirm, does not claim to be one. Don't assume "insurance" here means your spot holdings are covered if custody itself goes wrong.

Which Countries Does Bybit Restrict?

If your country is not the US or Canada, Bybit will likely let you sign up — but "not restricted" and "regulated in your country" are two separate questions, and the UK row above shows exactly how far apart they can be.

What Is Verified and What Isn't?

Has Bybit Had a Security Incident?

Yes, and Bybit addressed it in its own press statement. In a post dated February 26, 2025 (bybit.com/en/press, checked 2026-09-13), Bybit said a forensic review attributed a targeted attack to the Lazarus Group, which compromised a Safe{Wallet} developer's credentials and used that access to reach a Bybit-administered Safe multisig address. Bybit stated that third-party forensic firms Verichains and Sygnia Labs found no indication its own infrastructure was compromised, and that it moved the majority of funds out of its Safe-administered addresses the same day. We're citing Bybit's own account and have not independently re-verified the forensic findings; read the full statement yourself before treating it as final.

How Does Bybit Compare to Kraken and Coinbase on Safety?

Kraken holds a FINRA self-regulatory membership and SIPC broker-dealer status in the US^†, though its security disclosures emphasize self-custody wallets over a published proof-of-reserves program^†. Coinbase holds SEC broker-dealer and FINRA registrations in the US^† and states proof-of-reserves as a security practice^†. Bybit has no registration we could confirm in any of the four markets this article covers, and its reserves page gives us no method to check. None of this ranks the three on one scale — a Kraken or Coinbase registration doesn't insure your deposit either — but Bybit is currently the hardest of the three to verify on paper. See Bybit vs Coinbase for the fee side of that comparison, and our Bybit review for its flat 0.10% maker and 0.10% taker rate on the regular tier^†† — a separate question from where it's regulated.

A Decision Checklist Before You Fund a Bybit Account

1. Check your own country against Bybit's restricted list first. If you're in the US or Canada, none of the rest of this matters — Bybit does not offer the regulated product there.
2. Read the UK statement yourself if you're in the UK. Bybit says plainly that FCA protections, including the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, do not apply to its cryptoasset services there.
3. Don't read "Insurance Fund" as deposit insurance. Based on what we could confirm, it covers derivatives liquidation shortfalls, not a platform-wide breach of your spot holdings.
4. Don't read "Proof of Reserves" as a completed audit until you can find the reserve ratio and method yourself — we could not, as of this check.
5. Keep a self-custody backup regardless of which exchange you use. The same discipline that says never put your whole position into one low-cap coin without a backup applies to platforms too — an unregistered exchange with an unverified reserves claim is a single point of failure. See our ranking methodology for how registration, reserves and restrictions factor into our scores, and is Binance safe and most trusted exchanges for how other platforms compare on the same checks.

Common Mistakes People Make When Judging Bybit's Safety

• Assuming a page titled "Proof of Reserves" means reserves are verified. The page existing and the reserves being independently verifiable are two different facts; we could confirm only the first.
• Reading "not restricted in the UK" as "regulated in the UK." Bybit's own announcement says the opposite.
• Treating the Insurance Fund as protection against a platform hack. As far as we could confirm, it covers derivatives liquidation shortfalls, a narrower risk.
• Ignoring the 2025 incident because Bybit's infrastructure checked out. A third-party developer's credentials were still compromised — that's part of the real attack surface, not a footnote.
• Comparing Bybit to Binance or Coinbase on fees alone. Our Binance vs Bybit comparison covers pricing; registration status is a separate axis, covered above.

FAQ

Is Bybit safe to use in the US?

Bybit does not offer its regulated product to US residents at all — the US is named on Bybit's own excluded-jurisdictions list (checked 2026-09-13), so the safety question doesn't reach the point of a license check.

Does Bybit have FCA authorization in the UK?

No. Bybit's own December 2025 UK launch announcement states it is "not authorised, regulated, or registered" by the FCA, and that UK cryptoasset protections like the Financial Ombudsman Service do not apply to its services.

Does Bybit publish proof of reserves?

Bybit has a help-center page titled "Proof of Reserves," but we could not confirm a stated reserve ratio, verification method, or audit date from it as of this check. Treat the page's existence and a verified audit as separate claims.

Was Bybit hacked?

Bybit addressed a security incident in a press statement dated February 26, 2025, attributing a targeted attack to the Lazarus Group that compromised a Safe{Wallet} developer's credentials rather than Bybit's own infrastructure, according to third-party forensic reviews Bybit cites. Read Bybit's own statement before drawing further conclusions.

See our Bybit exchange profile and most trusted exchanges list for more comparisons.

RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

Last updated: 2026-09-13