Bybit hires ex-VARA lawyer as chief legal officer

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has appointed Peter Loo as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, effective from an announcement made on 3 August 2026. The exchange says Loo will oversee its global legal, regulatory and compliance strategy, drawing on more than 25 years of experience across investment banks, regulators, law firms and digital asset firms in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Loo joins from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), where Bybit says he served as General Counsel and Head of Sector Development, with involvement in licensing frameworks, market conduct policy and enforcement protocols. That makes the appointment a move from regulator to supervised entity: VARA is Bybit's licensing authority in Dubai, and the exchange has used the emirate as its global headquarters since 2022. It received provisional VASP approval from VARA in September 2024.

The hire comes after a demanding stretch for Bybit. In February 2025, the exchange lost around $1.4bn in a hack during a transfer between cold and hot wallets, one of the largest crypto thefts on record. Malaysia's Securities Commission ordered Bybit to cease operations in December 2024 over operating an unregistered digital asset exchange, and the company paused its Indian operations pending compliance work. More recently, Bybit registered under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation in May 2025 and, in October 2025, became the first platform licensed by the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority at the federal level.

The appointment also raises standard governance questions, given the direct supervisory relationship between VARA and Bybit. Bybit's announcement does not address whether cooling-off periods or restrictions on handling supervisory information apply. FinanceFeeds said it could not independently verify Loo's VARA title or tenure, noting that VARA's publicly identified General Counsel, Ruben Bombardi, was quoted in that capacity as recently as April 2026.

Bybit said Loo's mandate includes building a globally aligned compliance framework, covering internal governance, licensing in priority markets and regulator engagement, to support plans for a single access point spanning trading, payments, custody and asset management. CEO and co-founder Ben Zhou said Loo understands how rules are written and applied across jurisdictions. Loo said credibility, structure and regulatory alignment are no longer optional for the industry, and that he will focus on frameworks and engagement models that meet the expectations of regulators and institutional participants.