Bybit led an $8 million Series A investment in Hata, a dual‑licensed digital asset exchange in Malaysia, with participation from global family offices. The round follows Bybit’s earlier support of Hata’s $4.2 million seed financing. Hata says the proceeds will be used to deepen liquidity, expand its user base and develop additional digital asset products.
Hata holds licenses from the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Labuan Financial Services Authority to offer trading and custody services. Since launching in 2023, the exchange reports more than 209,000 registered users and RM1.04 billion (about $225 million) in transaction volume in 2025.
Ben Zhou, Bybit’s co‑founder and CEO, described Malaysia as strategically important, noting the country’s digitally engaged population and long‑term potential for digital asset adoption. Bybit is among the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume, according to market data.
The investment in Hata is part of Bybit’s broader push beyond Southeast Asia. In March the exchange tapped Derek Dai as country manager for the MENA region to lead expansion and partnerships. Bybit has said it sees the Middle East as an emerging crypto market and plans to expand UAE dirham support and deepen relationships with banks and payment providers.
Malaysia itself is building out a regulatory framework to support digital assets. In June the government launched the Digital Asset Innovation Hub, a regulatory sandbox for pilots such as programmable payments, ringgit‑backed stablecoins and supply chain financing under central bank oversight. Under the sandbox, a telecom company linked to Crown Prince Ismail Ibrahim issued a ringgit‑backed stablecoin called RMJDT on the Zetrix blockchain.
In November, Bank Negara Malaysia released a three‑year roadmap to explore asset tokenization, outlining pilots for tokenized deposits, stablecoins and cross‑border settlement and creating an industry working group co‑led with the Securities Commission Malaysia. More recently the central bank said it is piloting three sandbox programs focused on ringgit‑backed stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits for cross‑border settlement, with participation from institutions including Standard Chartered, CIMB Group and Maybank.
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