Bybit, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, plans to buddy up with an established local company when it enters the U.S. to help it challenge the reach of firms like Robinhood Markets , according to CEO Ben Zhou.
Zhou said finding a partner is Bybit’s standard approach when entering new territories, suggesting that for the U.S., Bybit will consider working with a company such as Interactive Brokers (IB), for example.
“It’s best at this stage to work with a partner who wants to enter the crypto field and who already has a client base in the U.S.,” Zhou said in an interview. “For example, IB or one of those guys who haven't gone into crypto and have a good U.S. base.”
Bybit, which has in excess of 80 million registered users worldwide across more than 180 countries and regions, has been collecting licenses globally with a view to offering a range of new regulated products. In Europe, for example, it plans to deploy an everything app offering derivatives and tokenized stocks as early as the first quarter of next year.
Bybit’s partnership approach cuts out the onerous alternative, taken by the likes of Coinbase Global , to cross the U.S. state by state gathering money transfer licenses, culminating in a coveted New York state Bit License.
The state-by-state licensing process would take two to three years, Zhou said. “I might as well just wait for [the] Clarity [Act] to pass or have a better understanding of what the new law is.
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