TL;DR: Bybit says its Dubai entity has secured a VARA virtual-asset service provider licence covering spot exchange activity; derivatives permission remains a future objective.

Bybit has obtained a Dubai regulatory licence for spot cryptocurrency exchange services, extending its locally authorized business in one of the industry's most closely watched jurisdictions.

The exchange announced Thursday that Bybit Fintech FZE received a virtual-asset service provider licence from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, known as VARA. The permission covers spot exchange services. Bybit's management says it wants to expand into derivatives later, but that would require separate regulatory approval.

A defined licence, not an all-purpose passport

Exchange businesses often operate several distinct activities: spot trading, leveraged derivatives, custody, brokerage and payments. A licence for one does not automatically authorize the others, and market participants should read regulatory announcements for their exact scope.

Bybit established an international headquarters in Dubai in 2022. The new authorization is an additional step toward operating local trading services within VARA's framework rather than relying on the company's broader international brand or permissions in other jurisdictions.

The distinction matters to users because legal entity, available products and customer protections can differ across markets. A trader seeing Bybit's name in multiple countries should not assume every account is covered by the same regulator or that all services have identical compliance terms.

Bybit's announcement cites a global base of more than 80 million users. That figure is company-reported and does not tell readers how many users are eligible to open an account under the specific Dubai permission, nor does it establish active local trading volumes.

What Dubai gains from a regulated entrant

Dubai's strategy has been to bring virtual-asset activity within a dedicated local regime rather than treat every exchange as a general technology business. For platforms, meeting authorization conditions may involve governance, market-surveillance and risk-control obligations that would not necessarily arise from simply offering a website.

Regulated status can create commercial opportunities with banking partners and institutional customers. It can also bring higher reporting costs and limits on products that an exchange might offer elsewhere, especially in leveraged markets.

Bybit executives have indicated that derivatives form a substantial part of the group's global business, making future permission an important strategic objective. But there is no basis for saying that Dubai has granted derivatives approval in this announcement.

For customers and competitors, the concrete news is a new spot-exchange licence. The next measures of progress will be the actual service rollout under Bybit Fintech FZE, the categories of client accepted, and whether further applications result in additional legally permitted activities.

Source: www.prnewswire.com original announcement or data.

Related Reading: crypto exchanges; crypto custody; stablecoins.

Written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR

• Bybit and Franklin Templeton have launched an off-exchange collateral program for eligible institutional clients.
• Tokenized money-market fund shares issued through Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform can be pledged while clients trade on Bybit.
• The structure lets institutions keep collateral in regulated custody rather than moving the assets directly onto the exchange.

Bybit is giving institutional traders a way to use tokenized fund shares as collateral without depositing those assets directly onto the exchange.

The crypto platform announced a strategic collaboration with Franklin Templeton on September 28, starting with an off-exchange collateral program built around tokenized money-market fund shares issued through Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform.

Collateral Can Stay Outside The Exchange

The structure is aimed at eligible institutional clients.

Rather than transferring all of their collateral into an exchange account, participants can hold qualifying tokenized fund shares through the supported custody structure and pledge them against trading activity on Bybit.

That is important for large investors.

Keeping assets off an exchange can reduce counterparty exposure and allow collateral to continue generating the yield associated with the underlying money-market fund.

Bybit gains access to the collateral value without needing the institution to turn the entire position into cash or stablecoins first.

Franklin Templeton’s Benji platform provides the blockchain-integrated recordkeeping and transfer infrastructure for the tokenized fund shares.

Tokenized Funds Are Becoming Trading Infrastructure

Tokenized money-market funds initially attracted attention as a way to hold Treasury-like assets onchain.

Their next use may be more consequential.

They can become collateral.

A fund share that earns yield while sitting idle is useful.

A fund share that can simultaneously support a trading position becomes part of market infrastructure.

That is the direction several crypto and traditional-finance companies are now pursuing.

The Bybit integration also shows why off-exchange collateral has become increasingly important after a series of large exchange failures and security incidents.

Institutional traders want access to liquidity and derivatives markets.

They do not necessarily want every dollar of collateral sitting inside the trading venue itself.

Separating custody from execution can reduce that concentration of risk.

The collaboration extends beyond the initial collateral program.

Bybit and Franklin Templeton say they also plan to explore additional tokenized investment and yield products for wallet-based users.

Those future products should not be confused with what is live today.

The concrete first step is narrower and more institutional.

Eligible clients can use tokenized money-market fund shares as off-exchange collateral while trading on Bybit.

That turns tokenization from something investors merely hold into something they can actively finance against.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR

• Bybit has launched Bybit Odds, a product for tracking prediction-market probabilities and sentiment.
• The launch campaign includes a 17,000 USDT reward pool.
• Bybit Odds is an analytics product integrated into the exchange, not a standalone decentralized prediction-market protocol.

Bybit is moving into prediction markets without launching a new betting chain or standalone venue.

The exchange has introduced Bybit Odds, an analytics product designed to surface probability and sentiment data from prediction markets inside its own trading ecosystem.

Prediction Data Becomes Another Trading Signal

Bybit says the product aggregates real-time odds and presents them through probability visualizations and sentiment tools.

That positions prediction-market data as another input for traders alongside price charts, funding rates and order-book signals.

The launch also includes a 17,000 USDT promotional reward pool for early users.

The interesting part is not the campaign itself.

It is the way prediction markets are increasingly being treated as a data source rather than a separate category of product.

Bybit Odds Is Not A New Decentralized Market

Users should keep the product’s role straight.

Bybit Odds does not create a new blockchain-based prediction market where users mint positions or settle events through a decentralized protocol.

It is an analytics layer integrated into Bybit.

That makes it closer to a market-intelligence feature than a standalone prediction exchange.

Still, the launch says something about where trading platforms think demand is going.

Probability markets are becoming mainstream enough that a major crypto exchange now considers their data worth packaging directly for active traders.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR

• Bybit has listed SDGRUSDT, a perpetual contract tracking Schrödinger Inc. shares.
• The contract offers up to 25x leverage through the exchange’s TradFi perpetual platform.
• Holders receive synthetic price exposure rather than physical SDGR shares.

Bybit has added Schrödinger Inc. to its growing list of equities that can be traded through crypto-style perpetual futures.

The new SDGRUSDT contract opened on September 22 with leverage of up to 25x.

A Biotech Stock Enters The Perpetual Market

Schrödinger is a software and drug-discovery company, making the listing a notable extension beyond the crypto-linked and technology names that have dominated many early TradFi perpetual products.

Bybit users can now trade continuous long or short exposure to SDGR through a USDT-settled contract.

That creates a market with different hours and mechanics from the underlying stock.

It also adds leverage and funding-rate dynamics that do not exist when an investor simply buys shares.

Synthetic Exposure Comes With Different Risks

The contract does not deliver physical SDGR stock.

There are no shareholder voting rights and no direct ownership relationship with Schrödinger.

Instead, traders are taking a derivatives position linked to the stock’s price.

That distinction is especially important for investors who may be familiar with equities but less familiar with perpetual futures.

The listing is another sign that crypto exchanges increasingly see themselves as global derivatives venues rather than platforms limited to digital assets.

Bybit’s TradFi desk is now applying the same perpetual structure to a steadily wider set of public-market prices.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR

• Bybit has launched URNMUSDT perpetual futures tied to the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF.
• The contract offers up to 25x leverage and continuous trading through Bybit’s TradFi desk.
• It is a synthetic derivative, not a spot ETF holding.

Crypto traders can now take leveraged exposure to uranium miners without leaving a perpetual-futures venue.

Bybit has listed URNMUSDT, a TradFi perpetual contract tied to the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF.

Uranium Exposure Gets Crypto Trading Hours

The contract opened on September 22 at 13:00 UTC with leverage of up to 25x.

Positions are settled in USDT and can be traded through Bybit’s derivatives infrastructure rather than a conventional securities brokerage.

That means traders get continuous access to the price theme without owning the underlying ETF.

The product also extends a broader trend in which crypto exchanges are becoming wrappers for commodities, equities and thematic funds.

Perpetual Exposure Is Not ETF Ownership

URNMUSDT tracks the price performance of the referenced ETF through a synthetic derivatives structure.

Users do not receive ETF shares, distributions or shareholder rights simply by holding the perpetual contract.

They also take on the additional risks of leverage, funding and liquidation.

The appeal is convenience and 24/7 access.

The trade-off is that the instrument behaves like a crypto perpetual, not like a conventional long-term ETF position.

For Bybit, the listing pushes its TradFi desk further beyond individual equities and into thematic market exposure.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.