Bybit's neobank push tests regulatory limits as it teams with Pave Bank

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou announced the exchange’s move into retail banking with a planned launch of a product called “MyBank” in February, a step Cointelegraph says will test how far crypto exchanges can expand into traditional finance. Bybit confirmed to Cointelegraph that it is working with Pave Bank, a licensed lender based in Georgia, to support the retail banking offering.

Pave Bank was founded in Tbilisi in 2023, holds a digital banking license from the National Bank of Georgia, and in 2025 raised $39 million in a Series A round that included Tether Investments. Legal observers flagged regulatory complexity. Gal Arad Cohen, a blockchain lawyer and partner at S.Horowitz & Co, told Cointelegraph that while the idea is “conceptually feasible,” it is “extremely complex from a regulatory perspective,” and he said exchanges must either partner with a licensed bank or obtain a full banking license.

Cohen added that “no major global crypto exchange currently operates as a fully licensed bank in the traditional sense, offering deposit-taking and core banking services under its own license.” Industry experts warned of trade-offs for exchanges moving closer to full-service banking.

Ryne Saxe said seeking a U.S. banking charter would require substantial structuring, and Yuriy Brisov of Digital & Analogue Partners noted that full-service banking brings capital and liquidity requirements, sanctions enforcement, operational resilience and incident liability.

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