Bybit wants to turn its Turkish operation into a full financial super app spanning payments, transfers, stocks and crypto, CEO Ben Zhou said, positioning the exchange to compete far beyond spot trading as Türkiye’s licensing regime takes shape.
In an interview with Fintechtime published Oct. 2, Zhou said Türkiye ranks among the world’s top five crypto markets for global exchanges and that he expects Bybit’s local operation to expand as regulations become clearer. The goal, he said, is for users to eventually handle their daily financial needs on the platform — international money transfers, stablecoin payments and access to investment products.
“We want to transform Bybit into a super application in Türkiye,” Zhou said.
Beyond the exchange business
The plan mirrors Bybit’s broader 2026 push beyond the traditional exchange model, which has already introduced banking-style services, custody and cross-border payments. The company has separately expanded into foreign-exchange contracts, traditional-asset derivatives and payment products this year.
Zhou told Fintechtime that Bybit could evaluate additional Turkish licenses to fill out the product range, though he announced no specific applications, launch dates or approved services beyond the exchange business already operating locally. Some of the envisioned services would require licenses beyond what a standard crypto trading platform can obtain.
Payments form a central pillar of the strategy. Bybit has developed payment products in other markets and recently connected Bybit Pay with more than 300 wallets, exchanges and financial platforms through Mesh, letting customers spend or transfer crypto directly from exchange balances. Availability of such features in Türkiye depends on local rules.
Stablecoins for cross-border business
Zhou said stablecoins already see heavy use for cross-border transactions in Türkiye, especially among businesses, and described the country as potentially one of the largest markets for corporate stablecoin payments — an assessment he presented as his own view rather than an independently verified ranking.
Third-party data supports the broader picture. Chainalysis research found in 2024 that Türkiye led the world in stablecoin trading volume relative to GDP, and its 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index ranks the country 20th overall under a methodology covering service flows, balances, peer-to-peer activity and cross-border transactions.
For a market where inflation and currency volatility have long driven residents toward dollar-pegged assets, corporate cross-border settlement is the next frontier that exchanges are eager to capture.
Licensing is still the gatekeeper
Bybit’s ambitions remain tied to Türkiye’s developing licensing system. The Capital Markets Board currently lists Bybit Kripto Varlık Alım Satım Platformu AŞ among companies that have declared their intention to continue operating — a list the regulator itself calls temporary. More importantly, the regulator explicitly states that appearing on the operating list does not equal authorization under the applicable rules.
Türkiye’s crypto framework covers licensing, custody, capital requirements, anti-money-laundering controls and technology standards for local platforms. Moving from declared intention to full authorization — and then to whatever additional licenses a super app would need — is the multi-step process standing between Zhou’s vision and reality.
Security reset after a brutal year
The expansion push follows a difficult stretch for the exchange’s security reputation. After the February 2025 hack that cost Bybit roughly 1.4 billion USD — still the largest crypto exchange theft on record — the platform has rebuilt its security model around zero-trust architecture and more separated wallet structures, according to the company.
Zhou has argued publicly that the post-hack overhaul made the exchange stronger, and Bybit’s proof-of-reserves reporting has continued through 2026. Whether Turkish regulators view that history as resolved will matter for the licensing path ahead.
The super app race
Bybit is not alone in chasing the super app label. Crypto exchanges worldwide are converging on the same thesis: that trading is the entry point, not the destination, and that payments, cards, tokenized stocks and remittances are where customer relationships deepen. Türkiye — young, digitally fluent, and crypto-heavy — is a natural battleground.
Local incumbents and global rivals are circling the same prize. Binance operates a significant Turkish business, local platforms have expanded fiat rails, and payment processors are embedding stablecoin settlement into merchant infrastructure. If Bybit secures the licenses it needs, its head start in derivatives liquidity could give it a genuine edge in the broader financial-services fight.
For now, Bybit’s Turkish users can trade crypto. The payments rails, stock access and corporate services will arrive only as fast as Ankara’s licensing machinery allows.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
zhou calling turkiye a top five crypto market checks out, lira volatility pushes everyone on-chain. but the super app part means years of licensing work beyond a crypto permit
stablecoin payments in turkey would genuinely be useful, half the country already treats usdt like a savings account. the stocks part feels like scope creep
years of licensing is exactly why zhou is doing press rounds now. get the crypto permit first, bolt payments on after, same playbook revolut ran a decade ago
stocks on a bybit app in turkey feels backwards but papara started weirder tbh. the international transfer angle is what actually pulls people in, remittance fees here are brutal
super app plans in turkey usually die at the licensing stage. but if zhou actually gets the license, the money transfer part alone would be huge here
licensing stage is where the big local crypto app attempts died too lol. but bybit already has the users, they just need the paper
^ halil is right that licensing kills most super app dreams, but papara proved it can be done. bybit just needs to want it more than the banks want to block it
Papara took a decade and a lot of patience with the regulator. Bybit arriving as a foreign exchange changes the politics of that approval completely
turkiye top five crypto market checks out, everyone here trades. going after payments and stocks instead of just spot is the actual story imo
the stablecoin payments angle is the real play. sending money abroad through turkish banks is slow and expensive, if bybit fixes that its over
this. i pay 6 percent plus two days of waiting every time i send money to my sister in germany. if bybit cracks stablecoin remittance they win this market overnight
6 percent plus two days of waiting is insane, i thought my bank was bad. if they nail stablecoin remittance to germany alone they win the market
6 percent is the posted rate, my last wire to berlin was closer to 7 with the intermediary bank skim. a stablecoin rail at even 2 percent and its game over for the turkish banks on that corridor
zhou naming payments before trading is telling. in turkey usdt IS the savings product, whoever nails stablecoin transfers first wins the market
usdt as the savings account is exactly why the transfer license matters more than anything else on that list. fix remittances and the rest of the super app is upsell
Bybit Pay connecting to 300 platforms through Mesh is the concrete part of this whole plan. The rest is roadmap talk until a payments license actually lands.
bybit pay through mesh is the only shipped item on that list. everything else in the zhou interview is a drawing of a plan, not a plan
bybit pay through mesh is already live with 300 platforms tho. its not all drawings
live on 300 platforms sure, but the germany corridor is still 6 percent and two days for normal people. ship that at 1 percent and every diaspora family switches overnight
everyone citing papara forgets it took them a decade and a banking license to get there. zhou doing press about super apps is step one of a very long stairwell
Papara also had domestic banking status the whole way. Bybit is asking for the crypto permit first and payments after, that sequencing is the risky part, not the ambition itself
the sequencing point is underrated. papara spent years as a licensed payments business before touching crypto, bybit wants to run it in reverse on a deadline
the mesh thing is the quiet part here, spending straight from exchange balances is already live elsewhere. but yeah, payments license before super app dreams, papara had a decade head start
zhou ranking turkiye top five checks out when you look at lira charts. interview is light on one thing tho, what happens to the super app if the licensing regime tightens instead of clarifies
answer is they pivot to whatever the regulator allows and call it strategy. seen it with every exchange that chased a local license and got half of one
zhou putting stocks in the same breath as crypto transfers feels like a wishlist. the germany remittance corridor alone is a real business, the rest is deck material until a payments license lands