Crypto Exchange Bybit Temporarily Restricts Services in India

Crypto exchange Bybit announced a temporary restriction of its services to users in India on Friday, set to take effect from 8 a.m. UTC on Jan. 12.

Indian customers will be unable to open new crypto and fiat trades or access other products on the platform from that date, with the exception of withdrawals, Bybit said in a statement.

Users’ existing derivatives positions will be placed in “close-only” mode, meaning they cannot be added to or modified and only closed out. Peer-to-peer trading ads in the country will also be removed at the same time, and Bybit Card transactions restricted. Additionally, copy trading relationships will be canceled, and trading bots terminated on Jan. 13 before 5 a.m. UTC, the exchange confirmed.

Regulatory Developments

Bybit said the move was “due to recent developments from Indian regulators and in continuation of previously implemented restrictions.” The firm clarified it was taking the measure while it continued to work with India’s financial regulator to finalize its registration as a Virtual Digital Asset Service Provider in the country.

Since March 2023, the Indian government has mandated that all VDA service providers operating in India, including offshore entities serving Indian users, must register with the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The crypto exchange said it is committed to resuming services as soon as the registration process is complete, which it expects to secure “in the coming weeks.”

It’s not the first time Bybit has encountered regulatory challenges in certain jurisdictions. It followed Binance in exiting the Canadian market in May 2023 and subsequently suspended services in the UK in September of that year. The company stopped offering products in France in August 2024. Last December, Malaysia’s securities regulator announced its enforcement action against Bybit for operating an exchange without proper registration.