Bybit Secures Full Dubai Licence for Spot Trading, but Derivatives Remain Out of Reach

Bybit has obtained a full licence in Dubai covering spot trading, giving the cryptocurrency exchange a regulated base in the emirate, while derivatives remain outside the scope of the authorisation.

The approval allows Bybit to offer spot crypto trading under the Dubai framework. Leveraged products — including futures, perpetual swaps and options — are not covered, so clients served from the jurisdiction are limited to buying and selling digital assets outright rather than taking leveraged exposure.

Spot scope

The gap between spot and derivatives is material for a crypto venue. Perpetual futures and other leveraged instruments are a core product line across the industry, and a licence that excludes them limits how closely a locally regulated entity can mirror Bybit's wider global offering. The current approval does not extend to those products, leaving derivatives out of reach in Dubai for now.

For the emirate, the licence adds another established crypto name to a jurisdiction that has been actively courting digital-asset businesses through a dedicated regulatory framework. For Bybit, a regulated presence in the Gulf sits alongside its existing international operations, which serve a largely cross-border client base.

The outcome also illustrates the continuing split between spot and derivative permissions in crypto regulation. Several authorities have moved to license spot trading first while handling leveraged products under separate, stricter regimes that typically carry additional capital, client-suitability and marketing obligations.

Bybit's Dubai approval therefore lands on the conservative side of that divide: a full spot licence, but no route to the higher-margin derivatives business that many exchanges rely on for revenue.