DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 15, 2026 — What does it take to create a financial system billions of people can rely on without thinking about it? That question set the tone for a fireside conversation at Paris Blockchain Week 2026, where Bybit co‑founder and CEO Ben Zhou outlined a vision for finance that is smarter, more accessible, and largely invisible to end users.
Zhou spoke on ‘Trust, Technology, and Transformation: Building the New Financial Platform for a Tokenized Economy,’ arguing that the next phase of the industry is less about market cycles and more about rebuilding infrastructure. The drivers, he said, are the convergence of artificial intelligence, programmable assets, and clearer regulation — all of which reposition finance as an embedded utility rather than a standalone product.
From Interfaces to Intelligence
Zhou challenged the idea that users will always interact directly with financial platforms. Instead, he described a shift toward agentic finance, where intelligent agents manage accounts, interpret market signals, and execute strategies on behalf of users. ‘We’ve introduced AI agent accounts that allow clients to create sub‑accounts for AI to interact, execute strategies, and access market data,’ he said, noting that agentic payments and execution are still early but gaining traction.
Today AI is often limited to analytics and data feeds; tomorrow those agents could act in real time, reducing the need for traditional interfaces as intelligence becomes embedded in the system.
A Quiet but Significant Transformation
While public discourse still centers on crypto markets, Zhou emphasized a subtler change: established financial institutions are adopting blockchain as infrastructure rather than a speculative asset. Stablecoins, in particular, are proving to be a practical bridge for faster payments, more efficient settlement, and expanded liquidity access.
Many institutions are integrating crypto rails without marketing them as ‘crypto,’ a sign that blockchain is transitioning from niche technology to foundational layer of global finance.
Trust as the Central Product
For Zhou, trust is both the main obstacle and the biggest opportunity. He highlighted that regulatory clarity has improved in recent years and praised jurisdictions like the UAE for actively encouraging innovation and creating structured pathways for growth. As rules become more defined across Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom, regulatory certainty is shifting from a constraint into an enabler, inviting broader institutional participation and accelerating maturation.
Integration, Not Replacement
Zhou framed the long‑term aim as enhancing existing systems rather than displacing them. The goal is to make financial services more intuitive, efficient, and universally available so that users don’t have to think about wallets, chains, or platforms. In that future, trust is engineered into the rails, intelligence operates behind the scenes, and technology recedes from view.
About Bybit
Bybit is the world’s second‑largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving a global community of more than 80 million users. Founded in 2018, Bybit’s mission is to build a simpler, more open, and equitable ecosystem. Focused on Web3, Bybit partners with leading blockchain protocols to provide infrastructure and on‑chain support, offering secure custody, diverse marketplaces, intuitive experiences, and advanced blockchain tools that connect TradFi and DeFi.
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