Bybit CEO Ben Zhou refutes reports of EEA service halt, confirms MiCAR compliance

Rumors of Bybit pulling out of Europe appear to have been greatly exaggerated. CEO Ben Zhou has pushed back against reports claiming the exchange was immediately halting services across the European Economic Area, calling them false and pointing to the company’s Austrian regulatory license as proof of its staying power.

The exchange’s European subsidiary, Bybit EU GmbH, was granted MiCAR authorization by Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) around late May 2025. That license allows it to operate across 29 EEA countries, with the lone exception being Malta. Rather than retreating from Europe, Zhou says, the company has been spending the past year doing the opposite: onboarding users and building out its regulated platform at bybit.eu.

A compliance-first strategy with a long runway

Zhou has acknowledged that holding a MiCAR license doesn’t automatically translate into profitability. The company projects it will take at least two years after achieving full compliance before Bybit EU reaches a break-even point.

To close that gap, Bybit is pursuing additional regulatory clearances. MiFID II, the EU’s broad financial instruments directive, is next on the list. The company has also been deploying market surveillance tools typically used by Nasdaq.

The backstory: a temporary pullback, not an exit

In December 2024, Bybit did temporarily curtail certain EEA operations while it was actively pursuing its MiCAR license in Austria. The company pulled back on some services while it worked through the regulatory approval process, then resumed once it secured authorization from the FMA.

The full MiCAR transition deadline lands on July 1, 2026. After that date, any crypto exchange operating in the EU without proper authorization will need to cease services. Bybit secured its license well ahead of that cutoff. Bybit EU has also been rolling out user incentives designed to pull traders onto its regulated platform at bybit.eu.

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