Ben Zhou

Ben Zhou is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bybit, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume. With a background in retail foreign exchange and a strong focus on trading infrastructure and customer service, he has helped shape Bybit into a major venue for crypto derivatives and spot trading, serving tens of millions of users globally. Zhou is known for positioning Bybit as a trader-centric platform, emphasizing execution quality, uptime, and education for both retail and institutional participants.

Early Life and Education

Zhou was born in Hangzhou, China, and spent part of his childhood there before moving abroad. He spent his teenage years in New Zealand, an experience that exposed him to different cultures and languages at an early age. He later moved to the United States for university, where he studied economics and developed an interest in financial markets and global macro trends.

After completing his degree, Zhou returned to Asia to begin his professional career. His early exposure to both Western and Asian financial environments would later shape his perspective on cross-border trading, market access, and the opportunities created by borderless digital assets.

Forex Career and Entry into Crypto

Before entering the crypto industry, Zhou built his career in the retail foreign exchange sector. He served for several years as general manager for the Greater China region at XM, an international FX brokerage. In that role he oversaw operations, sales, and client support across a large and diverse customer base, gaining firsthand experience with leveraged trading, market infrastructure, and risk management.

Zhou was introduced to cryptocurrencies around 2016 and began studying blockchain projects and trading digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). During the 2017 bull market he observed a rapid influx of new traders, a lack of education, and significant limitations in the trading experience on many existing crypto platforms, including system overloads, order execution issues, and weak customer support.

To help address the knowledge gap, he briefly ran an educational YouTube channel and used social platforms to explain crypto basics, trading concepts, and market structure. These efforts highlighted both the scale of user demand and the need for more robust exchanges tailored to active traders.

Founding and Building Bybit

In early 2018, Zhou co-founded Bybit with the goal of creating a derivatives-focused crypto exchange that could meet the standards of professional traders. From the outset, the platform focused on perpetual contracts and leveraged products, backed by a matching engine engineered for high throughput and low-latency order execution.

Bybit’s design philosophy has centered on three pillars that Zhou often highlights: performance, reliability, and customer service. The exchange invested heavily in infrastructure to reduce outages and overloads, while implementing 24/7 multilingual support for users. Over time, Bybit expanded beyond derivatives into spot trading, options, copy trading, and yield products, positioning itself as a full-service platform for both retail and institutional clients.

Under Zhou’s leadership, Bybit also developed educational initiatives such as Bybit Academy, as well as trading competitions and community programs intended to deepen user engagement and improve market literacy.

Global Expansion, Regulation, and Market Position

Originally based in Singapore, Bybit later relocated its headquarters to Dubai as part of a broader strategy to operate in jurisdictions seeking to build structured regulatory regimes for digital assets. Zhou has publicly emphasized constructive engagement with regulators, licensing in multiple countries, and adherence to compliance standards as critical to long-term growth.

Bybit has grown into one of the largest global exchanges by derivatives and spot volume, competing with other major centralized platforms for liquidity, market share, and institutional relationships. The exchange has also been visible through sponsorships in esports, football, and motorsports, using these partnerships to grow brand recognition and connect with broader audiences interested in trading and digital culture.

Controversies, Legal Challenges, and Security Events

Like many large centralized exchanges, Bybit has faced legal and reputational challenges. In the aftermath of the FTX collapse, the FTX bankruptcy estate brought claims against Bybit and related entities over withdrawals and token transactions that occurred around the time of FTX’s insolvency. The dispute was resolved via a financial settlement, allowing Bybit to move forward while reinforcing the importance of counterparty risk management and on-chain transparency across centralized platforms.

In February 2025, Bybit experienced a major security breach in which attackers stole a large amount of ether from the exchange’s wallets. Zhou publicly acknowledged the incident, committed to maintaining a 1:1 backing of user assets, and worked with partners to replenish reserves and restore services. The episode drew significant attention as one of the largest single hacks in crypto history and prompted renewed scrutiny of custody practices, third-party integrations, and incident response procedures.

Role in the Digital Asset Ecosystem

Ben Zhou’s role in the digital asset ecosystem is closely tied to Bybit’s rise as a key venue for derivatives and leveraged trading. Supporters view him as an operator who brought lessons from forex into crypto, raising expectations for execution quality and customer support in a sector that initially tolerated frequent outages and limited service. Critics point to the inherent risks of leverage, the systemic impact of large centralized exchanges, and the need for continued improvements in security and compliance.

As crypto markets mature and regulatory frameworks evolve, Zhou remains a prominent figure at the intersection of trading infrastructure, global regulation, and user experience. His leadership at Bybit continues to influence how centralized exchanges compete, manage risk, and integrate with a broader ecosystem that includes institutional capital, retail traders, and emerging Web3 applications.

• Bybit CEO & Co-Founder