Bybit will cease all user functionalities, with the sole exception of withdrawals for all merchants from India, effective January 12.
Bybit has announced that it has discontinued all services for merchants from India due to regulatory pressures. These limitations are brief and will have an impact on countless Bybit services.
In response to regulatory pressures in India, Bybit, one of the most heavily utilized centralized exchanges, has suspended the majority of its services for Indian merchants. The exchange has a lengthy history of prior restrictions and will respond by further restricting services for Indian accounts this time.
The opening of new transactions or access to its secondary products will be suspended by Bybit as of January 12. However, new deposits will be restricted, and traders from India are only permitted to withdraw their funds at any given time. There has been no specified deadline for the resumption of services.
All Bybit products, including crypto and fiat trading, will be unavailable for new orders from Indian traders. Traders will be unable to add funds or modify their exposure, as all derivative positions will transition to close-only mode.
The termination of users who possess trading algorithms will occur after January 13. Additionally, there will be no grace period for the completion of new or ongoing duties or campaigns, as campaign participation will cease over the weekend. As a result of the regulatory concern, Bybit Card will also implement transaction restrictions.
Within the next few weeks, the Bybit exchange intends to finalize its registration as a Virtual Digital Asset Service Provider in India. Services will resume immediately upon completion of the registration procedure.
The cryptocurrency market in India is generally unregulated. While the country does not specifically forbid the use of cryptocurrency, there are no definitive guidelines regarding the definition of a transparent and legal crypto market. Bybit has been operating in a grey area without official registration or compliance up until this point.
Bybit is a critical exchange for the trading of meme tokens. Based on site visits, India is one of the top five markets for the exchange. The Bybit website generates 4.4% of its traffic from India.
The Crypto Adoption Index by Chainalysis currently places India at the top. The United States has an index of 0.54%, while the country has a 100% score with an index of 1.0. The nation has been well-known for its rapid adoption of new trends, as well as its tendency to rapidly realize gains and volatile trader behaviors. Traders from India are highly influential across many communities, particularly in relation to meme tokens.
Traffic from India accounts for over 9.5% of all Pump.fun visits, as it is the second-largest region for meme token traders. The meme token market concludes with Bybit, which contains the most popular and liquid assets. Although the market will continue to attract a sufficient amount of traffic from other regions, the activity of certain themes that are associated with the Indian internet space may decrease.
Mobile devices account for the majority of Bybit transactions, as the exchange has capitalized on the low-cost token market. Bybit has been operational since the 2018 market cycle, with daily volumes of $7.8B.
Bybit has experienced an increase in traffic in recent months, as it has capitalized on the popularity of meme tokens and, more recently, some of the most popular AI agent tokens. Despite the fact that BTC and ETH trading still account for 57% of all Bybit activity, the exchange’s competitive advantage is its ability to promptly list the most recent trending assets.
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