Dubai, UAE — February 27, 2026 — Bybit, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, today disclosed the outcomes of its 2025 Security Initiative, a year-long program that introduced proactive defenses to stop fraud before funds leave users’ accounts. Chainalysis estimates $17 billion in crypto was lost to scams and frauds in 2025, underscoring the need for early intervention.
A proactive, layered defense
To shift from reactive recovery to prevention, Bybit deployed a Dynamic Risk-Based Withdrawal Protection system that classifies risky withdrawals into three tiers and applies graduated responses to block scams while minimizing disruption to legitimate activity.
Tier 1 — Early Warning (Low risk)
– Big-data heuristics detect anomalous patterns, such as large batches of withdrawals to a single newly created address. The system triggers automated prompts to users and preemptively blacklists suspect destinations.
Tier 2 — Real-time Alert (Medium risk)
– When credentials appear in credential-stuffing or leaked-password databases, or when destination addresses look suspicious on-chain, Bybit issues immediate prompts at withdrawal to encourage users to pause and verify, countering social-engineering techniques.
Tier 3 — Immediate Blocking and Cooling-off (High risk)
– Withdrawals to addresses tied to confirmed fraud, including long-con duration investment scams, are blocked in real time and placed under a mandatory one-hour cooling-off period so users have time to confirm intent.
2025 results and key metrics
Measures rolled out in late 2025 produced measurable protections for users:
– Intercepted recoveries: Of $500 million in flagged withdrawals during Q4, Bybit intercepted and recovered $300 million, safeguarding the assets of more than 4,000 users.
– AI-driven identification: Proprietary AI tools flagged 350 high-risk investment-fraud addresses using on-chain signals in Q4, helping shield roughly 8,000 users from potential losses.
– Account takeover resilience: The platform repelled over 3 million credential-stuffing attempts across 2025.
– On-chain labeling and manual review: The system auto-labeled 350 suspicious addresses and operations staff manually tagged 600 more via support tickets in Q4, collectively averting about $1 million in imminent fraud.
Partnerships and information sharing
Bybit emphasized collaboration with industry and public-sector partners to strengthen collective defenses. The exchange integrated threat intelligence from providers such as TRM, Elliptic and Chainalysis and shared standardized monitoring indicators with the wider ecosystem to help map and disrupt fraudulent networks.
David Zong, Head of Group Risk Control at Bybit, commented that the initiative was designed to move risk control from passive monitoring to active, intelligent defense: the combination of AI-driven on-chain surveillance and partner intelligence lets Bybit stop scams earlier and contribute insights to industry-wide protections.
About Bybit
Founded in 2018, Bybit serves a global community of more than 80 million users and operates as one of the largest crypto trading venues by volume. The company focuses on secure custody, a broad set of marketplaces, user-friendly interfaces and tools to bridge TradFi and DeFi, while partnering with blockchain projects to support on-chain innovation. For more information, visit https://bybit.com/ or the press page at https://www.bybit.com/en/press
Media contacts
Head of PR: Tony Au
Bybit
[email protected]
For community updates and announcements, see Bybit’s official channels at https://www.bybit.com/en-us/promo/global/communities/.