**TradFi Firms Warm Up to Cryptocurrencies: Bybit CEO Ben Zhou Weighs In**

The traditional finance world has long been skeptical of cryptocurrencies, but that's changing fast. According to Ben Zhou, the CEO of Bybit, one of the world's leading crypto exchanges, digital assets are now mainstream and increasingly accepted by governments and financial institutions.

In an exclusive interview with Fortune, Zhou revealed that he had to convince his team eight years ago that Bitcoin wasn't a scam when he founded Bybit in 2018. Today, the landscape has shifted dramatically, with the U.S. passing the GENIUS Act last year – a move that marks a significant step towards mainstream crypto adoption.

"The traditional world is embracing crypto," Zhou declared. "If they don't embrace it, they will be obsolete, especially with crypto wallet adoption growing 20 to 30% each year." Currencies like stablecoins are becoming increasingly regulated and can now be used for things like remittances and payments, Zhou added.

In 2025, over $18 trillion in transactions was settled in stablecoins, eclipsing total transactions on traditional payment platforms like Visa and Mastercard, according to a report by crypto research firm Delphi Digital. Cryptocurrency transactions are "faster and cheaper" than traditional bank transfers, Zhou argued, citing the example of SWIFT, which is often criticized for its slow transfer times.

As more mainstream institutions join the crypto bandwagon, investment banks like Goldman Sachs are working to integrate tokenized assets in their trading and advisory operations. Payment providers like Visa and Mastercard are building partnerships with crypto exchanges like Bybit to issue payment cards that enable users to spend crypto holdings as fiat in real-time.

"Crypto is going to be the main driving force behind traditional financial instruments like stocks and credit-default swaps within the next decade," Zhou predicted. "Accessibility, connectivity, and unification – these are the beauty of this technology."

**From Forex Trader to Crypto Pioneer**

Before entering the crypto industry, Zhou worked as a Forex trader at financial brokerage XM, where he spent seven years as its China general manager. Back then, crypto was still niche, with many investors viewing it as a "pump and dump" scam. Zhou had an early interest in crypto but found that platforms at the time were often overloaded whenever Bitcoin moved.

He started Bybit in Shanghai, recruiting a team of about 15 software engineers from major Chinese tech firms like Tencent and Alibaba. After China banned crypto mining and trading in 2021, Zhou relocated his team to Singapore; a year later, he moved again to Dubai, drawn by the UAE's crypto-friendly regulations.

Today, Bybit operates globally in over 180 countries, though the platform doesn't offer services in several others, including the U.S., Canada, China, and Singapore. Despite the finance industry's overall optimism on cryptocurrency, challenges in ensuring safe transactions remain – as Zhou himself experienced when his exchange was hacked for $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum in February 2025.

**Recovering from the Hack**

The massive hack spooked Bybit's customers, leading to "massive withdrawals," Zhou said at the time. The exchange launched an industry-first "Recovery Bounty Program," which called on the global cybersecurity community to help trace and recover the stolen currency, offering 10% of the stolen funds as a reward.

Although Bybit wasn't able to recover the stolen funds, it was able to secure financing to effectively restore its reserves. Zhou says that, since the hack, Bybit has tightened its security measures, including using hardware security modules (HSMs), tamper-resistant physical devices that securely generate, store, and manage cryptographic keys.

"Unless there's a physical break-in, no one will be able to touch tokens," Zhou explained. However, he acknowledged that the fast pace of cryptocurrency transactions means it's hard to stop scams and thefts from happening – a challenge that many in the industry are still grappling with.

**Regulation: The Key to Mainstream Adoption**

As more countries lay out regulatory frameworks for crypto companies like Bybit, Zhou remains optimistic about the future. In late 2024, the EU rolled out the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license, which allows certified crypto providers to operate legally across the whole continent.

Zhou believes that enhanced regulation will pave the way for mainstream crypto adoption. He's focused on European markets this year as well as developing markets like Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey, and India, where demand for crypto is booming due to weak local currencies.