Exclusive interview with Bybit founder Ben: Getting out of the impact of the hacker attack and sharing the secrets of rising against the trend

Interview: Tong, PANews

Written by: Zen, PANews

Among all the crypto exchanges, Bybit and Binance have a lot in common. Their founders Ben and CZ both had the experience of studying and living abroad. Their companies were both established in Shanghai and quickly expanded overseas and then established themselves in the international market. The Middle East is now their strategic stronghold, and even their offices in Dubai are located in the same area. But they also have obvious differences. Compared with Binance, which started with spot trading, Bybit relied on derivatives to gain ground, and then gradually built a spot system and rose against the trend.

"Beyond boundaries" is how Ben defines Bybit's development in the past two years. In mid-April, Bybit organized a CCCC content creator event in Bali, where Ben also shared Bybit's 7-year history, security upgrades, and innovative products. PANews Editor-in-Chief Tongtong was invited to serve as a mentor for the CCCC event and conducted an exclusive interview with Ben.

The Bybit hacking incident, which has attracted the most attention, has basically been settled. This crisis handling has also been praised by the industry as a "textbook". In the interview, Ben Zhou said frankly: "I have been facing challenges alone since I was a child. This experience has taught me how to stay calm in a crisis and mobilize team resources as quickly as possible to deal with emergencies." Because of this, in the face of the hacker attack that shocked the industry in February, Ben not only disclosed the information and stabilized market expectations in the first place, but also personally coordinated various departments to conduct post-investigation and system repair, showing strong leadership and judgment.

Adjust security concepts after hacking incidents and turn to openness and transparency

On the night of February 21, 2025, Bybit suffered the largest hacker attack in the history of the crypto industry to date, with assets worth nearly $140 million stolen. The hacker attacked the third-party wallet service SafeWallet, stole the funds that should have been transferred to the hot wallet and dispersed them to multiple unknown addresses.

Less than half an hour after the incident, Ben, the CEO, quickly grasped the situation. He posted a message to the community on the X platform, briefly explaining the hack. An hour after the incident, Ben went live and provided real-time updates and detailed explanations in a live broadcast that lasted more than two hours. "Bybit is solvent, and even if the hacker's losses cannot be recovered, all customer assets are 1:1 backed and can be compensated." Despite the huge scale of the hack, Bybit assured users that its 1:1 reserve can ensure the safety of their assets.

Ben previously revealed in an interview that he did not have much emotion in the face of this emergency, because the first thing he had to think about was how to deal with the situation. This strong ability to withstand pressure may be related to his growth experience in adolescence. Ben went abroad alone at the age of 12 to study in New Zealand. Since there were no parents or relatives to take care of him, he often had to face and solve various problems in life and study by himself.

"I am not very sensitive to the amount itself, but more concerned about data indicators." Ben said that he did not care too much about the absolute amount of loss in this incident, but was more concerned about how to solve it. "What makes me most depressed is that I know I have the ability to do better, but I didn't do it." Looking back on the whole process of the hacking incident, Ben said that his biggest regret was that he had previously focused more on business and did not invest time and energy in the management of the security and technical teams.

"My style is to pay attention to details. In fact, some of the mechanisms in the middle could have been avoided." From the second day of the accident, Ben began to serve as the chief technology officer . After focusing on security and technology, he changed the concept of the entire security team, from the original closed management to openness and transparency. As of April 10, Bybit has completed 5 rounds of internal security audits and 4 rounds of external audits after the hacker incident, and upgraded more than 50 security measures. "After asking an external third-party agency to complete the audit, many other problems were found." Ben believes that the ability to be transparent is the safest. The greatest value of doing so is that you can regularly communicate with the world's top security experts who understand the Bybit architecture and listen to their suggestions.

The hacking incident reflects the good brand and trust that Bybit has established in the cryptocurrency industry , and shows that the industry is united in fighting security threats as it matures.

How the "Huangpu Military Academy" in the Stock Exchange was Created

During the hacking crisis, even under extreme pressure, Bybit's withdrawals and product services remained unimpeded, customers were able to contact the support team and their account managers at any time, and the team remained fully prepared and efficient. This is related to Bybit's corporate culture and organizational strength.

"We all joke that Bybit is the 'Huangpu Military Academy' now, and it is easy for people who graduate from us to find jobs," Ben said jokingly in the interview. Previously, PANews had an exclusive interview with Bybit COO Helen . This "atypical" crypto exchange executive with a background in HR said that Bybit promotes a "work hard, play hard" culture, and the company's labor efficiency is among the highest in the industry.

"Helen started out as an HR person, and she focuses on people and organizations. The role of a leader in our entire company is not to set the direction, but to support people to achieve their goals." Ben said that this is even more true for Helen, the COO, whose job is more about support and promotion. He added: "If you say you want to do something, we will give you resources and push for implementation. If you guarantee that you can do it, we will move forward at your pace."

Of course, this also gives Bybit a relatively higher work pressure and intensity. Helen has previously mentioned that Bybit encourages capable employees to hold multiple positions. Accordingly, Bybit will provide employees with generous incentives and rewards through performance appraisals. At the beginning of this year, Binance and Bitget disclosed that they had issued high year-end bonuses to employees, which attracted industry attention. Bybit, which focuses on "results orientation", is no exception. Ben said that the rewards they provide for high-performance employees are very considerable. The bonus for the best performing team of the year will be multiplied by an additional coefficient of 1.8. Last year, the spot was one of the best teams.

Since the founding of Bybit in 2018, Ben has personally trained new employees every month. During the training process, he always asks new employees a "soul-searching question": "Why did you come to Bybit? If you are looking for a comfortable environment, then you are in the wrong place." Ben admitted that Bybit wants to strive to be the world's number one, which means sacrificing weekends, and he himself does not rest at all on weekends. "But the environment we have created is - as long as you want to do something, we will fully support you, and you will feel great doing it."

Innovation drives growth: Gold spot and the “life-saving” RPI mechanism

For employees who are determined to do things and work hard for them, Bybit provides fertile soil and sufficient nutrients, and this culture also opens up a broad space for innovation for the exchange.

In late January this year, Bybit announced the launch of Bybit Pay in Brazil . This payment solution that connects the traditional banking system and Web3 provides seamless payment services to end users and can be seamlessly integrated with Brazil's leading payment system Pix. This innovative business was launched by the Bybit fiat currency team. It was launched after in-depth market research based on the friendly regulatory environment and high penetration rate of cryptocurrencies in Brazil. In addition to the establishment of the project, the investment of resources and manpower to make the final decision, Ben did not get too involved in the Bybit Pay product. He admitted: "I did not participate in the whole process of this product at the beginning , and directly gave the team space to develop innovative products to meet market needs ."

In fact, in addition to continuously optimizing its core spot and derivatives businesses, Bybit Pay is just the tip of the iceberg in Bybit's business model innovation.

The current gold craze is sweeping the world, and as early as August 2024, Bybit became the first crypto exchange to support spot gold trading denominated in USDT, and launched the " Gold & Forex Copy Trading " function in January this year, allowing users to follow professional traders' gold and foreign exchange strategies. In addition, Bybit officially launched CFD products such as crude oil and stock indices on the MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform, supporting users to directly trade global commodities and indices using USDT.

The above measures not only attracted more traditional financial market participants, but also enabled it to obtain considerable trading volume and liquidity even during the bear market. With the help of the above diversified products and innovative features, Bybit set a record high total daily trading volume of US$107 billion in August 2024, a four-fold increase from the previous average level, and firmly ranked as the world's second largest crypto exchange. In addition, with the recent surge in gold prices, on April 17 this year , the gold transaction volume on the Bybit platform reached US$ 24 billion in a single day.

After the hack, Bybit made a strong recovery in just one week. A report from Block Scholes pointed out that the RPI (Retail Price Improvement) mechanism deployed by Bybit was a key factor in the exchange's rapid recovery, saying: "With the help of the timely launch of RPI orders, Bybit stabilized its liquidity situation and began to rebuild its share in the overall cryptocurrency spot trading." RPI was launched just a few days before the hack. It is designed for retail users and only matches non-algorithmic orders, thereby deeply activating the platform's order book while ensuring fairness. Ben also compared the liquidity depth of Bybit and Binance in the top 200 currencies by market value at the event, and the results were far better than the industry level.

Abandoning the Web3 wallet business and striving to become a one-stop asset management platform

In recent years, centralized exchanges have been striving to become the preferred entry point to the Web3 ecosystem, and the hybrid strategy of "CEX+Web3" seems to have gradually become the standard for cryptocurrency trading platforms. In the public's perception, CEX is no longer just a traditional matchmaker, but also a builder and developer of Web3's underlying infrastructure and products. However, Bybit seems to be a "contrarian" in this trend.

On April 16, Bybit released an important update on the adjustment of Web3 products and services, announcing that it will terminate multiple Web3 services in its strategic transformation. According to the announcement, Bybit will stop Bybit's Cloud Wallet and Keyless Wallet services on May 31 this year, and plans to shut down multiple Web3 transaction functions during the same period, including its DEX Pro platform, Swap & Bridge services, and the broader NFT market.

Prior to this, as of April 8, Bybit had terminated support for several products including Inscriptions, NFT Pro, ApeX, Buy Crypto and its Initial DEX Offering (IDO) platform, and its Web3 Points program will also be discontinued on April 28.

"We recently made a decision to only keep the mnemonic wallet service in the wallet ." Ben said in the interview that when Bybit became the world's second largest exchange a year ago, he told the team to take market share out of the core business indicators and not be limited to market share . He believes that for Bybit, which has the dark horse gene, the platform must go from copying well and copying quickly to achieving real innovation in the next stage. Therefore, in order to refocus resources and focus on providing a more efficient and user-centric experience, it is necessary to streamline Web3 products, including the wallet services that Binance, OKX and other big companies are pushing in their business.

Ben pointed out that even in the bear market of the cryptocurrency industry, centralized exchanges can still operate normally because they are at the throat of the industry. "I asked the team: 'Is the wallet the throat of Web3?' No one could answer." He asked the team again, what is the throat of Web3? In the end, there was still no conclusion. "But there is a conclusion - that is, the wallet is definitely not the throat," Ben added, because the use priority of DApp is much higher than the wallet itself. If mainstream DEXs such as Jupiter, Raydium or Uniswap do not support a certain wallet, users will not hesitate to switch to another compatible wallet because DApp is their core demand. This means that the Web3 wallet itself lacks irreplaceable traffic entry value.

In addition, the barriers between wallets are extremely low, and the user switching cost is also low, and assets can be easily transferred between multiple wallets. Transfers are also very convenient, which makes it difficult to build a moat between wallets, and user stickiness and long-term retention become extremely fragile. This makes the competition between wallets eventually evolve into a race of "who can attract more money-grabbing parties", and this behavior of "relying on incentives to attract short-term traffic" is not only unsustainable, but also unable to build the ecological logic of "user sovereignty, protocol coordination, mutual benefit and win-win" that Web3 truly advocates. Ben made it clear that "money-grabbing is not the core of Web3, nor is it the throat of the future."

"I think everyone will eventually compete to become a one-stop asset management platform." Ben pointed out that due to habit, most users are reluctant to frequently register or switch platforms for different assets. Even if the handling fee of another platform is lower, they would rather operate in a familiar environment. Therefore, only through a unified platform covering all categories of products such as US stocks, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies can we maximize the retention of funds, increase stickiness and cross-selling opportunities.

Return to the European and American crypto markets

In recent years, the global cryptocurrency market is accelerating its evolution towards compliance, and regulators in many countries have introduced or improved frameworks to balance innovation and risk. Based on the UAE government's open policy on digital assets, mature and forward-looking regulatory framework, and superior geographical and economic location, Bybit quickly established its global headquarters in Dubai after obtaining IPA approval from the UAE Ministry of Economy in 2022. In February of this year, Bybit received the "In-Principle Approval" (IPA) issued by the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), allowing it to set up a virtual asset platform operator in the UAE, marking that it is in the final stage of obtaining a full operating license.

For Bybit, which aims to become a global one-stop asset management platform, returning to Europe and entering the US market are its most important goals in its current international strategy.

"Bybit's mission is to provide a safe and secure trading experience for all cryptocurrency communities, backed by a strong regulatory framework. To ensure we meet the highest standards and pave the way for a safer and more sustainable future for the industry, we have proactively decided to temporarily adjust our operations in the European Economic Area (EEA)." At the end of last year, at the request of the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR), Bybit announced its temporary withdrawal from the European market.

In February this year, Bybit was removed from the "blacklist" by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) through active actions, ending the regulatory turmoil since 2022, which is regarded by the industry as a key turning point for its return to the European market. "Bybit is actively striving to obtain the Austrian MiCAR license," Ben said, adding that the previous hacking incident had no impact on this. Once the corresponding license is obtained, Bybit can resume cooperation with EEA customers in accordance with applicable laws.

Since taking office as US President in January this year, Trump has sent strong signals through a number of administrative measures, providing a more relaxed regulatory environment for the digital asset industry. Faced with the open door, Bybit, which had no US business in the past and even did not recruit American employees, began to explore the possibility of entering the US market.

In addition to the European and American markets, Bybit has also set its sights on Hong Kong. In February last year, Spark Fintech Limited, a Hong Kong entity of Bybit, submitted an application for a virtual asset trading platform (VATP) license to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Later, Bybit discovered that the licensed person in charge of its subsidiary had not completed the procedures before leaving the previous position after transferring to Bybit , causing a dual identity problem, and finally decided to withdraw the application first. At present, Bybit has applied for a VATP license again , and Ben emphasized: "Hong Kong is now very welcoming to us."