Bybit is expanding its push into traditional financial markets with a wider rollout of 24/7 stock-linked perpetual options, while simultaneously launching a new prediction-market product that rewards users for making forecasts on crypto, sports and financial events.
The exchange said on September 28 that its TradFi Perp Options are now available on underlyings including Tesla, Nvidia, QQQ and SOXL, with trading available around the clock, fractional-sized exposure and settlement in USDT. Users access the contracts through their existing Bybit Unified Trading Account rather than opening a separate traditional brokerage account.
The September 28 rollout builds on an earlier launch on September 17, when Bybit initially introduced Perp Options with Nvidia and its SpaceX-linked perpetual contract. The product is unusual because these are not conventional exchange-traded stock options. Instead, the options are written on Bybit’s own TradFi perpetual contracts, which in turn track traditional assets.
Bybit Is Putting an Options Layer on Top of Stock Perpetuals
That structure gives Bybit a way to extend crypto-style market infrastructure into equities without providing direct ownership of the underlying shares.
Perp Options are European-style contracts, meaning they are exercised only at expiry rather than before it. They are cash-settled in USDT, with no physical delivery of shares or the underlying perpetual contract. Bybit calculates settlement using a time-weighted average price derived from the relevant underlying index.
The contracts also use a multiplier of one. Conventional U.S. listed stock options commonly represent 100 shares per contract, so the smaller multiplier reduces the notional exposure required to build a position. Bybit supports Cross Margin and Portfolio Margin, allowing traders to combine stock-linked perpetual and options positions inside the same account.
The simpler access does not remove the risks associated with derivatives. The SEC’s investor-education website notes that options trading risks can include losing the entire premium paid by a buyer, while some option-writing strategies can expose sellers to losses beyond their initial investment.
Bybit is putting significant promotional spending behind the rollout. Its Wall Street Blue-Chip Options Challenge runs from September 28 through October 27 and offers rewards totaling up to 70,000 USDT.
The first 1,000 qualifying users with no previous TradFi Perp Options history can receive 5 USDT after completing at least 50 USDT in eligible volume. A second competition offers a prize pool that scales with aggregate participant volume, from 9,000 USDT at the lowest tier to 65,000 USDT if collective volume reaches the 2 billion-to-5 billion USDT tier. The top 50 traders by individual eligible volume share the unlocked pool.
ByPick Adds Prediction Markets to the Same Expansion Strategy
On the same day, Bybit also launched ByPick, a points-based prediction product covering crypto, sports and financial events.
Users who register receive 200 Campaign Points without needing to make an initial deposit or trade. Additional points can be earned through correct predictions, daily check-ins, trading tasks, referrals and campaign milestones. Active users whose points balance falls below 200 can also restore it to 200 once per day after completing an eligible trade.
The first season runs through October 31 and carries a 100,000 USDT prize pool. Users completing at least 20 cumulative check-in days can qualify for the standard rewards pool, while those exceeding 10,000 USDT in qualifying Spot and Futures trading volume are moved into the higher-value Grand Prize Pool.
The distinction between the points and the rewards matters. Campaign Points themselves have no monetary value, cannot be withdrawn or transferred and reset when the season ends. ByPick is therefore closer to a gamified prediction layer linked to an exchange rewards program than a conventional cash-funded prediction exchange.
Bybit is not alone in pursuing the category. MEXC has also been putting substantial incentives behind prediction markets, while Coinbase has moved further into same-day event contracts as prediction products become another source of transaction activity for major crypto platforms.
The Bigger Product Is the All-in-One Trading Account
Taken together, the two September 28 launches look less like isolated product additions and more like another step toward turning crypto exchanges into multi-asset trading platforms.
The competitive advantage crypto exchanges are trying to build is not simply access to Tesla, Nvidia or prediction markets. Traditional brokers can already provide equity and options exposure. The differentiator is the attempt to place crypto, stock derivatives, options, event predictions and stablecoin collateral inside one account that operates continuously.
The same trend is visible elsewhere. Binance has been promoting 24/7 stock exposure through tokenized securities, while other market operators are working on perpetual futures tied to U.S. stocks.
For exchanges, the economics are attractive. A customer who already holds USDT does not need to transfer money to a stock broker to express a view on Nvidia, then move capital elsewhere to trade an event contract. Keeping those activities inside one ecosystem potentially increases trading frequency, collateral balances and opportunities to cross-sell additional products.
ByPick makes that strategy especially clear. The predictions themselves use free campaign points, but access to the larger reward tier depends on more than 10,000 USDT of Spot and Futures volume. The product can therefore work as an engagement funnel that encourages activity elsewhere on Bybit rather than needing to generate direct trading fees from the prediction contracts themselves.
24/7 Equity Derivatives Also Create a New Price-Discovery Problem
The most important test will come when Wall Street is closed.
Tesla and Nvidia shares still trade primarily around established U.S. market sessions, even if extended-hours venues have lengthened the trading day. Bybit’s stock perpetuals continue trading through weekends and holidays, and the options written on those perpetuals remain tradeable as well.
That creates two layers between the trader and the underlying share: first the perpetual contract tracking the stock, then the option whose value depends on that perpetual.
Bybit itself warns that liquidity can fall and spreads can widen when the underlying traditional market is closed. Its index methodology can also adjust the treatment of price sources that stop updating during market closures. That means weekend price discovery may behave differently from trading during normal U.S. market hours.
The promotional structure makes liquidity another metric worth watching. A competition offering a maximum 65,000 USDT pool at billions of dollars in aggregate volume could generate substantial reported turnover, but raw volume alone will not show whether the options market has developed durable liquidity. Bid-ask spreads, open interest, depth across strikes and expiries, and activity after promotional rewards expire will provide a clearer signal.
Regulation remains another constraint. Bybit states that TradFi derivatives may be unavailable in certain jurisdictions, and ByPick similarly excludes users in restricted markets. Stock-linked crypto derivatives can expand much faster technologically than they can necessarily expand geographically.
Still, the direction is becoming difficult to miss. Crypto exchanges spent their first era competing over who could list more tokens. The next competition increasingly appears to be over who can give one customer the most markets without making them leave the platform.
Bybit’s September rollout adds options and predictions to that race. The bigger question is whether traders eventually see those products as useful complements to traditional brokers, or whether the convenience of a single 24/7 account becomes valuable enough to change where they trade altogether.
Johan Shamshad is a financial markets writer at Dave Finances covering cryptocurrencies, trading platforms, brokers, fintech, financial regulation, and developments across global markets. He previously worked at Gulf News, adding newsroom experience to his coverage of fast-moving financial and digital-asset markets.
His work focuses on identifying market-moving events, company developments, regulatory changes, product launches, and shifts in trading and financial infrastructure.
Johan contributes news and analysis designed to help readers understand not only what happened, but why a development matters and how it may affect the wider financial landscape.