Why I do not recommend Bybit
Bybit might seem like it offers some great investment opportunities, and you may have seen people recommending it in emails, forums, chat groups, and on social media. But is it really a secure and trustworthy broker? Let's find out.
Bybit is not a trusted broker because it is not regulated by a financial authority with strict standards. We would not open an account for ourselves with them. If you want to stay safe, only sign up with brokers that are overseen by a top-tier and stringent regulator. All the 100+ brokers reviewed on the BrokerChooser website meet this criteria.
As a brokerage safety expert, I meet many people who have lost their money to shady brokers and scammers. I use data and warning lists published by regulators worldwide to analyze whether a brokerage is a legit entity. These are my key findings on the safety profile of Bybit:
- Avoid Bybit as it is not regulated by a top-tier regulator.
- Data on Bybit comes from regulatory sources and is checked by our legal experts.
- If you get scammed by a broker, you have few options to get your money back.
- Select from 100+ top-tier-regulated brokers featured in our unique Find My Broker tool.
Avoid Bybit as it is not regulated by a top-tier regulator
The first rule of keeping your investments safe is to avoid brokers that are not regulated at all.
Having said that, the fact that a broker is regulated is not sufficient to guarantee the safety of your money. The entity that regulates the broker makes a crucial difference. Our brokerage experts put regulators into three categories:
- Top-tier
- Mid-tier
- Low-tier
Top-tier regulators are like the toughest referees in sports. They enforce the strictest rules to make sure brokers play fair and don’t engage in any shady activities. If a broker is overseen by one of these top-tier regulators, it’s a strong sign they’re following the highest standards. This means you can expect fair pricing, transparent trade execution, and a well-regulated trading environment.
Our experts compiled a list of some of the most reputable top-tier financial regulators in the following table.
Name of regulator | Country of operation |
---|---|
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) | United States |
FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) | United Kingdom |
BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) | Germany |
ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) | Australia |
FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) | Switzerland |
We checked and Bybit is not regulated by a top-tier regulator, so you are better off avoiding it.
By contrast, mid-tier regulators are like the security guards at a county fair. They do their best to keep things in order, but they don't have the same resources or strict rules as the top security at a massive festival. This means they might not catch every problem, offering less protection for investors.
Finally, low-tier regulators are like the neighborhood watch compared to professional security. They offer the least comprehensive oversight of brokerage firms, meaning brokers under their watch face fewer requirements and less strict compliance enforcement. These regulators often provide little to no investor protection mechanisms or compensation funds, leaving clients with minimal safeguards.
There is a high probability that brokers regulated by low-tier authorities might apply unfair pricing practices, opaque trade execution methods and schemes that may lead to conflict of interest with their clients.
If you sign up with a broker regulated by low-tier authorities - typically operating in tax havens such as the Seychelles and Bermuda - you run a high risk of encountering unscrupulous practices, or even scams or fraud.
Bybit data you can trust
BrokerChooser's brokerage experts track more than 30,000 brokers for safety info and regularly monitor nearly a dozen warning lists published by regulators worldwide to update and expand our brokerage database. Being traders ourselves, we meticulously analyze over 100 brokers using real money, which grants us the expertise to evaluate the safety credentials of any given broker.
Our data on Bybit was:
- collected from regulatory databases
- reviewed by our legal team.
Our team of analysts uses a combination of advanced scraping techniques and manual checks to keep our brokerage database up to date and separate trustworthy brokers from the untrustworthy ones. We also stay relevant by adding info about fraudulent brokers reported by users, ensuring accuracy through our own thorough analysis.
To further broaden the scope of our monitoring, we constantly evaluate and identify the brokerage firms that get the most online searches. After assessing these firms, we add them to our database.
Got scammed? Here's how to recover your funds
The sad truth is, most money lost to scams is gone for good. But there are a few steps you can take to try and get it back.
One thing you should definitely do is save all your documents and correspondence. Keep everything—screenshots, emails, and chats. The more proof you have, the better your chances if you need to go to the authorities.
If you get scammed by a broker, you have a few options you can try to get your money back:
- You can initiate a chargeback, a feature offered by banks and payment systems to protect clients. This process involves your bank or provider reversing the funds from the broker's account if the service wasn't delivered.
- You can take legal action and get a Mareva (or freezing) injunction issued against the company. This injunction is useful to prevent the company from transferring its assets out of the jurisdiction of the court.
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If the broker has a financial regulatory body, you can also report the scam to them.
Be super vigilant of recovery scams to avoid falling prey twice in a row. These are fraudulent schemes where scammers pose as individuals or companies claiming to help scam victims recover their money they lost in a previous scam.
They typically promise to assist in recovering lost funds for a fee or request personal and financial information from the victim. The promise is, of course, false and the victim is essentially re-victimized a second time when they pay the recovery scam artist.
Check out this expert guide on how you can spot and avoid a scam.
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Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.