Bybit review — Is it the Bitmex alternative that we all needed?
Do you have more time on your hands? Read this longer version of Bybit review instead.
ByBit is a relatively new (founded in March 2018) leverage trading (or margin trading) cryptocurrency exchange that focuses on cryptocurrency derivatives, offering Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and EOS trading against the US Dollar (USD).
Bybit allows up to 100x leverage for traders to multiply their exposure to the market, which is a double edged sword — your profits are multiplied, but so are the losses.
Traders on Bybit can take both short and long positions to make money whichever way the market moves. Taking a long position means buying the asset and essentially making a bet that it goes up. Similarly taking a short position means selling the asset and essentially making a bet that it goes down in value.
Anyone who has not traded with leverage before should be very cautious and start with small positions — the welcome bonus (at the top of the article) is a good place to start as it essentially allows you to make a risk free trade.
Comparison with competitors (Bybit vs Bitmex & Deribit)
In this paragraph I will compare Bybit to other popular leveraged cryptocurrency exchanges.
Available trading pairs
Bybit: BTCUSD, ETHUSD, EOSUSD, XRPUSD
Bitmex: BTCUSD, ETHUSD and futures ADABTC, BCHBTC, EOSBTC, ETHBTC, LTCBTC, TRXBTC, XRPBTC
Deribit: BTCUSD, ETHUSD
While Bitmex uses inverse and quanto contracts to allow trading other pairs (such as ETHUSD and LTCBTC) using Bitcoin as margin, Bybit and Deribit require you to deposit and use the underlying currency for margin (ETH for ETHUSD pair, XRP for XRPUSD pair). That means you cannot use your Bitcoin to trade ETHUSD pair on Bybit or Deribit.
Maximum leverage & Risk limit
Bybit: 100x leverage, risk limit 550 BTC
Bitmex: 100x, risk limit 1,100 BTC
Deribit: 100x, risk limit 1,000 BTC
24h Volume (on 25th September 2019, BTC perpetual contract)
Bybit: 2,384,581,494 USD
Bitmex: 7,776,390,351 USD
Deribit: 840,658,913 USD
Customer support
Bybit has a live chat that operates 24/7 and is able to speak multiple languages. So far my experience with Bybit’s customer support has been excellent — they have always solved my problems / question about the platform quickly and professionally.
Trustworthiness
As I do not have a good metric to use for trustworthiness and I guess it is subjective, I will use the Alexa rank to determine how many people visit the exchanges and how popular they are.
Bybit: Alexa rank 16,946
Bitmex: Alexa rank 14,857
Deribit: Alexa rank 24,947
Trading engine
Bybit: 100,000 transactions per second
Bitmex: 500 transactions per second
Deribit: 10,000 transactions per second
The trading engine is the main reason I moved from Bitmex to Bybit. It truly is amazing! I have never had any problems with overloads, my stop losses not working or getting a slippage on my market orders. On Bitmex this happened every, and I mean it, every single time there was a significant move and I have lost a lot of money due to this. I’m sure you guys are familiar with the following red box:
Or with the following scenario, where Bitmex’s market makers profit from your stops:
Despite the fact that Bybit is relatively new exchange, it has a significant amount of volume (even compared to Bitmex). The amount of liquidity on Bybit should be enough for users that trade with position size less than 5,000,000 USD.
All of the exchanges have a taker fee of 0.075% and maker fee of -0.025% (you get paid for making limit orders when someone fills them).
The only issue I have with Bybit is that they do not offer cross margin. They have something called ‘Auto Margin Replenishment’ that is similar, but not quite the same. Basically what ‘Auto Margin Replenishment’ does is that it adds margin to your position from your available margin. You can read more about Auto Margin Replenishment by clicking here.
User interface (UI)
Bybit’s user interface looks gorgeous and is very easy to use. I personally really love using the dark mode and I think the overall user experience is far more superior to Bitmex’s.
What I love most about using Bybit is the fact that they show your Unrealized P&L (Profit & loss) and margin in both USD and Bitcoin— no need for sketchy GreaseMonkey extensions anymore that people love to use with Bitmex.
Bybit also allows you to easily manage your next target and stop loss by clicking the pencil button next to your position. The estimated loss and profit really helps you to manage your position’s risk.
Conclusion
Personally I do prefer Bybit over Bitmex as I have not encountered any issues with slippage and overloads, the user interface is cleaner (as far as I am concerned) and they withdraw more times per day making it easier to move your funds. But I do miss the ‘Trollbox’ on Bitmex to be honest.
