Bybit seeks broker partnerships to challenge Robinhood in the US

Bybit wants a seat at the American trading table. The crypto exchange plans to look for big broker partnerships to take on Robinhood in the US.

What Bybit has built so far

The partnership push builds on a product Bybit launched on October 12, 2026. Eligible users outside restricted jurisdictions can now trade more than 1,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs.

The US is on that restricted list. So the company is selling American equities to everyone except Americans, at least for now.

Trades run through Bybit’s Unified Trading Account and are funded with USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin. Users park digital dollars in their account and use them to buy shares of real companies.

Execution happens through Alpaca Securities LLC, a licensed broker that is a member of FINRA and SIPC. An introducing broker, Infra Capital Limited, sits in the middle of the arrangement. It is regulated by the Mauritius Financial Services Commission.

Bybit offers zero commissions on eligible trades, fractional shares, and pre-market and after-hours sessions. Trading runs 24/5, and dividends can be reinvested in USDC. Users get direct economic ownership of the securities, including any dividends those shares pay out.

From CFDs to the real thing

This is a notable change in approach for Bybit. The exchange previously offered stock exposure through contracts for difference, or CFDs, and tokenized products.

A CFD is essentially a bet on a price. You profit or lose based on how a stock moves, but you never own the stock itself.

That shift fits a broader strategy under CEO Ben Zhou. He wants Bybit to become a leader in multi-asset trading, rather than a crypto-only venue.

The company now counts more than 80 million users globally.

Why Robinhood is the target

Robinhood is the obvious benchmark. Its US-facing app already blends stocks and crypto under one roof. Robinhood has also been promoting tokenized equities in markets outside the US.

Rather than building American brokerage infrastructure from scratch, Bybit intends to seek out large partners to help it reach US customers. The Alpaca arrangement offers a template. Bybit has already shown it is willing to lean on licensed third parties instead of becoming a broker-dealer itself.

What this means for the trading landscape

The stablecoin angle is the genuinely interesting crypto piece. Funding equity purchases with USDC turns a stablecoin into a bridge between digital and traditional markets. Dividend reinvestment in USDC closes the loop. Money can flow from crypto into stocks and back out as stablecoins without ever touching a traditional bank account on the user’s end.

For Bybit, the move is also a diversification play. Crypto trading volumes tend to swing with market sentiment, and equities offer a second revenue stream that does not depend entirely on token prices.

Bybit’s current setup explicitly excludes US users. Moving from that position to competing head-on with Robinhood is a large leap, and the company has framed it as something it will pursue, not something already secured.

Partner selection will be the key detail to watch. The size and regulatory standing of any broker Bybit signs with would signal how serious, and how fast, its American ambitions really are.