Bybit's Martin Reflects on Seven-Year Journey, Daily Active Users Rise from 300 to Global Leader

Bybit employee Martin posted on social media, reflecting on the scene when he joined the company on July 29, 2019, when daily active trading users were only 200 to 300.

In its early days, Bybit had only 4 inverse contracts, with a founding team of less than 50 people, and was located in a repurposed factory in Hongkou District, Shanghai. Founder Ben's handshake during the interview demonstrated respect, which was one of the key factors for his joining.

The crypto exchange is transitioning from a "makeshift team" to an integrated multi-asset trading platform, allowing users to trade traditional financial assets like gold, oil, and stocks without needing to switch platforms, cross borders, or deal with exchange rates. Funds are flowing from traditional brokers to crypto platforms, which attract retail and institutional investors with low barriers, high leverage, and 24/7 trading.

Bybit plans to launch a TradFi solution based on MT5 in 2024, becoming the first exchange to support trading of over 100 traditional financial assets by August 2024, and will introduce gold forex in 2025, officially rebranding as Bybit TradFi. Recently, its U.S. stock tokens and contract strategies have been criticized as "not aggressive enough," but the platform promises to accelerate its expansion into the global stock market and "star assets."

Original text

“Seven-Year Itch?”

Seven years ago today, on July 29, I joined Bybit with a skeptical heart.

At that time, the company was very small, located in a creative park in a repurposed factory in Hongkou District, Shanghai. As one of the first 50 employees, I was attracted by the fact that such a small company had so many foreign colleagues, which felt like a multinational company. Hahaha

Of course, the most important reason was my boss, Ben. When he interviewed me, he reached out his hand to shake mine, which left a deep impression on me. As someone who had just worked for two years, it was the first time I felt respected.

On my first day, Ben painted a grand blueprint for us, envisioning a future where crypto could trade gold, stocks, commodity futures...

At that time, the company had only one website and 4 inverse contracts. Every day I watched Google's statistics, and the number of daily active trading users online was only over 200, 300. Back then, who would have dared to imagine that Bybit would achieve such success seven years later?

Looking back now, we have realized our slogan from the early days: Trading the world, bit Bybit.

My previous two jobs were at Yinke Holdings (now Jiufang Zhitu) and Dongfang Caifu, both large financial companies with thousands of employees.

Why did I choose this startup with only a few dozen people? I admit there was a significant element of gambling involved.

At that time, there was a hierarchy in the finance industry: investment banks > research institutes > public funds > private equity > third-party > account opening/bank tellers, and the crypto space was seen as being at the bottom of this hierarchy, even lower than the frequently collapsing P2P.

But now, the crypto space is no longer the makeshift team of the past; it is disrupting the arrogance of traditional finance.

They are unwilling to change, so we will change.

Today's crypto exchanges can aggregate all market targets; if you want to trade gold, oil, stocks, anything... as long as you want to trade, crypto can help you achieve it. Moreover, there is no need to switch platforms, cross borders, or deal with exchange rates, saving many troublesome steps.

I must say, all these changes have occurred in less than seven years. My seven-year career has been both short and long.

I have experienced the 312 and 519 events... seen the despair of BTC at $3,700, and the glory of BTC at $128,000, witnessed the DeFi boom, and experienced the rise of NFTs and inscriptions.

Recently, many voices have questioned why Bybit seems to be a beat behind in this round of U.S. stock enthusiasm.

In fact, Bybit was one of the first platforms to start laying out TradFi products.

We began developing TradFi solutions based on MT5 in 2024, becoming the first exchange to support trading of over 100 traditional assets by August 2024, and will launch gold forex in 2025, officially rebranding as Bybit TradFi.

I admit that in this round of U.S. stock tokens and contract strategies, we have indeed not been aggressive enough, but I believe many friends have noticed that the speed and liquidity of our newly added stock contract trading pairs are continuously improving.

In the future, we will not only expand into a broader global stock market but also launch more "star assets," and I look forward to them meeting everyone soon!

Finally, I will end with a famous saying from Lei Jun: "The world will not always be dominated by the strong; there will always be opportunities for newcomers!"

Source: Bybit Martin | Stock Trading on Bybit @BybitMartin