Ben Zhou
Ben Zhou is the co-founder and CEO of Bybit, a prominent cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. He has played a significant role in Bybit's endeavor to become a leading platform in the crypto trading space.
Overview
Zhou's vision for Bybit purports to offer a robust and user-friendly platform for both retail and institutional traders. The exchange has expanded its product offerings to include spot trading, derivatives, NFT marketplace, and various other crypto-related services. Testing to see if publishing works
Personal Life
Ben Zhou was born in 1990[2]. As of July 2025, he is approximately 35 years old[2]. He holds Chinese citizenship and resides in Singapore[2]. Zhou is married and has a young son[2] .
Outside of his work in the crypto industry, Zhou enjoys playing baseball and tries to run regularly, although his travel schedule often interferes. He has humorously referred to himself as a "Chief Traveling Officer" due to the demands of his role. He also prioritizes spending time with his family when possible. Zhou is known as a strong supporter of Bitcoin and has worked to gain trust among investors and market participants, actively motivating them even during bear markets. His net worth was estimated to be approximately $60 million as of late 2023, including a significant stake in Bybit. He is also a speaker at cryptocurrency conferences and a commentator on financial news programs[2].
Education & Early Life
Ben Zhou was born in 1990 in Hangzhou, China[2]. At age 11, his family relocated to New Zealand, where his parents instilled in him values of diligence and perseverance[2]. He initially faced difficulties adapting to the new environment, particularly due to the language barrier, but his mother played a significant role in his adaptation[2]. His father taught him the importance of hard work for success[2]. Throughout his formative years, Zhou developed a passion for baseball—a sport his parents encouraged him to pursue and one that remained an important part of his life through his college years[2] . College baseball helped develop his situational and tactical awareness skills[2].
For his higher education, Zhou attended Earlham College where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 2010[2] . He also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania[3] [4]. Though he initially faced challenges adapting to cultural differences in the United States, he persevered with his studies before eventually returning to China after completing his education[2] .
Career Background
Prior to founding Bybit, Ben Zhou gained significant experience in the traditional financial sector. After graduating from college, he returned to China and joined XM, an international forex brokerage company [2] . He worked there for seven years, holding the position of General Manager for the Greater China region [2] . This extensive experience in the forex trading industry provided him with valuable knowledge of trading systems and market dynamics .
Zhou's interest in the cryptocurrency space began in mid-2016 after being introduced to blockchain technology and the token economy by a friend [2] . He spent considerable free time researching the crypto market, which he found to be very different from traditional finance – young, inefficient, but full of energy and potential. He started trading cryptocurrencies and observed that many participants lacked understanding and struggled with due diligence [2]. This led him to initially create video reviews and use platforms like WeChat to bridge the knowledge gap between Western and Asian crypto communities, accumulating around 20,000 followers, before deciding to build his own exchange [2] .
Crypto Journey
Ben Zhou's foray into the world of cryptocurrencies began in mid-2016, sparked by an introduction to blockchain technology and the token economy system from a friend [2] . He was immediately captivated by the potential of this emerging digital realm . Dedicating most of his free time to research, Zhou found the crypto market distinctly different from the traditional financial industry he was accustomed to – describing it as young, inefficient, yet brimming with energy and potential. He quickly delved into trading cryptocurrencies himself.
By the end of 2017, as cryptocurrency prices experienced extraordinary growth and the market became "super hot," Zhou observed a significant issue: many new participants lacked a fundamental understanding of the industry and struggled with due diligence [2]. Recognizing this knowledge gap, he felt compelled to contribute to raising awareness[2]. He initially started creating video reviews of projects and became a small-scale Key Opinion Leader (KOL) on YouTube . Additionally, he utilised WeChat as a primary tool to bridge the information divide between the Western and Asian crypto communities, accumulating around 20,000 followers through these efforts..
However, Zhou soon identified deeper flaws within the existing cryptocurrency trading platforms, particularly in the derivatives market [2]. He believed traders aspired to a significantly better exchange experience, especially concerning execution and customer support. This realization prompted him to shift focus from content creation to building a solution . By early 2018, specifically March 2018, Zhou gathered partners and co-founded Bybit [1]. He strategically recruited top tech and fintech experts from prominent companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Morgan Stanley to build the of the new exchange[2].
Bybit's Founding and Early Growth
The idea for Bybit originated from the inefficiencies Zhou observed in crypto derivatives trading, proposing that traders deserved a better exchange that met their needs, particularly regarding execution and customer support. Ben Zhou and other co-founders gathered partners and launched the exchange in March 2018 [4] . Zhou recruited tech and fintech experts from companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Morgan Stanley to join [2].
Bybit's mission was to endeavor to construct and lead a fair trading environment by delivering a better trading experience and building a faster, fairer, and more human exchange. Soon after its launch, Bybit quickly expanded its presence in the Asian market[2]. In 2019, Bybit achieved 10% of the global BTC volume and was recognized as one of the top crypto exchanges in the world. The same year, Bybit hosted a Bitcoin trading competition called 'BTC Brawl' and continued this tradition for the next two years by organizing the 'World Series of Trading'[1]. In 2020, Bybit reached another milestone when its daily trading volume surpassed $4 billion[1].
Bybit's Global Presence and Products
Bybit is registered on the British Virgin Islands as Bybit Fintech Limited[4]. It has its headquarters in Singapore and maintains offices in Hong Kong and Taiwan[4]. The company also had tech developers in China and local teams in Korea and Japan as of 2019. Bybit aims to be a global exchange, seeking to serve clients from over 300 countries.
The platform offers a wide range of products and services, including spot trading, derivatives (USDT-Perpetuals, USDC-Perps, inverse Perps, Futures, USDC-Options, Leveraged Tokens), an NFT marketplace, Bybit Earn, Buy Crypto, and Options[4]. Bybit lists over 100 crypto tokens and supports over 300 spot trading pairs, including major coins like BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and others[4].
Bybit utilizes a tiered Maker-Taker fee structure. For non-VIP users, Spot trading fees are 0.10% for both Maker and Taker. For Perpetuals and Futures trading, non-VIP fees are 0.01% for Makers and 0.06% for Takers. Fees decrease for higher VIP and Pro tiers, reaching 0% Maker and 0.02% Taker for Spot trading, and 0% Maker and 0.03% Taker for Derivatives trading at the Pro 3 level[4]. The exchange offers leverage up to 100x on crypto derivative products, including perpetual contracts like BTC/USD, ETH/USD, XRP/USD, and EOS/USD[4] . Users can trade using isolated or cross-margin[4].
Bybit Philosophy and Approach
Ben Zhou's philosophy for Bybit is centered on the trader, aiming to provide the best possible trading experience by focusing on the exchange's fundamentals. The company's slogan is "We care, we listen, and we improve," reflecting their commitment to responding to client feedback and concerns.
Key aspects of Bybit's approach include fast execution with a matching engine supporting 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) and low latency (1ms), designed to prevent order rejections and overloads. The platform is built for non-stop maintenance with hot updates, and as of April 2019, had never experienced a stop trading maintenance since going live. Bybit also endeavors to emphasize responsive customer support, offering 24/7 live multilingual chat and one-on-one account managers.
They regularly release functional improvements based on user suggestions and share these updates on their social channels.
Zhou seeks to bring trust and transparency to the exchange, working to make himself accessible to clients on platforms like Twitter and Telegram. Bybit also organized offline meetups and seminars to connect with clients face-to-face. The exchange also focuses on providing value through education via the Academy, which has offered online webinars and seminars on topics like margin trading, risk management, and market analysis. strives to continue introducing new products and innovations.
Security Measures
Ensuring client fund safety purports to be a top priority for Bybit. As of April 2019, the exchange utilized a hierarchical deterministic cold wallet system to store all funds. Manual procedures were in place to check all withdrawals, ensuring every transaction was verified. Bybit's code and withdrawal procedures had also passed GrayBox and penetration testing conducted by SlowMist, an industry leader in security checks that has worked with other major exchanges like Huobi, and is a long-term security partner of Bybit.
February 2025 Security Breach
In February 2025, Bybit was the target of a major security breach, resulting in the theft of approximately $1.5 billion in corporate funds, making it one of the largest crypto heists in history[6]. The attack was attributed to the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group[6].
The Attack
On February 21, 2025, attackers drained 401,346.77 ETH from one of Bybit's multisig cold wallets[7]. According to CEO Ben Zhou, the breach was not a direct hack of Bybit's core systems but a sophisticated "musked UI" attack[7]. The wallet's multisig signers were tricked into signing a malicious transaction that appeared legitimate but was designed to change the smart contract logic of the cold wallet, giving the attackers control[7]. Zhou immediately confirmed that no customer funds were affected, as the stolen assets were corporate funds[6][8].
Bybit's Response and Recovery Efforts
In the immediate aftermath, Zhou used his X account to provide real-time updates, reassuring users that other wallets were secure and that Bybit was solvent and could cover the loss[8]. The news triggered a surge of over 350,000 withdrawal requests, which Zhou reported were all processed within 12 hours[8]. Bybit secured a bridge loan from partners and acquired approximately 446,870 ETH to replenish the stolen funds and announced it would publish a new audited Proof of Reserves (POR) report to confirm its 1:1 asset backing[6][8].
To aid in recovery, Bybit launched the "Lazarus Bounty" program, a public initiative to crowdsource the tracking of the stolen funds on the blockchain[6]. As of March 10, 2025, the program had successfully identified and helped block $40 million of the stolen assets, with Bybit paying over $4 million in rewards to participants. However, blockchain analysis firm Elliptic reported that the Lazarus Group had already successfully laundered at least $300 million, which was considered unrecoverable. Bybit also accused crypto exchange eXch of failing to stop the criminals from cashing out over $90 million through its platform, a claim the owner of eXch disputed[6].
Industry Views and Challenges
Ben Zhou views the crypto market as young and inefficient but full of energy and potential. He is 100% optimistic about crypto and blockchain in the long run, which is why he chose to build Bybit in this field. He believes the biggest challenge for Bybit and the industry is the dramatic changes in the market, whether due to regulations or market dynamics, emphasizing the need to be prepared, act fast, and adapt. Exchanges that have remained successful are those that embraced change first and acted quickly. aims to tackle this by continuously listening to its customers and staying prepared.
Zhou sees other crypto derivative exchanges like Bitmex and Deribit as peers, holding great respect for Bitmex for introducing perpetual swaps. He looks up to figures like CZ, the CEO of Binance, for his interaction with clients, honest feedback, and constant innovation. Zhou believes that to achieve positive long-term results in the industry, the focus should shift towards improving mass adoption, which he sees as key to solving many current issues.
Recent Developments
Bybit has continued to grow and evolve since its founding. In 2020, the company contributed to a noble cause by donating proceeds to UNICEF for girls’ education[1]. In 2021, Bybit partnered with Red Bull Racing[1]. The company surpassed 15 million global users in 2023[1]. Bybit also recently opened a headquarters in Dubai[1].
In May 2024, Bybit reportedly fired leadership following an incident related to the Notcoin listing[5].