Bybit lets eligible global users buy over 1,000 US stocks with USDC, held in custody by Alpaca

Bybit's earlier equity products were tokenized. It already offers tokenized equities ^[10], and one of its earlier products gave exposure to SpaceX through IPO Express ^[11]. The new service is built differently. Alpaca executes, clears and holds the shares ^[2], so calling it tokenized equity access would misdescribe it on the terms of the October 12 announcement shared with crypto.news ^[15].

The hours are the first limit a USDC holder meets. Trading runs 24/5 ^[5], which is at best 120 of the 168 hours in a week, about 71%, and leaves a weekend of up to 48 hours with the stock side shut ^[17].

Commissions are zero ^[4]. The announcement did not say how Bybit earns on a service with no commission across 1,000-plus securities ^[1]. In our view the currency conversions are the likeliest place for a fee: cash dividends move from dollars into USDC before they reach a customer's account ^[7], and a purchase paid in USDC has to become dollars somewhere on the way to a US clearing firm.

It could go three ways. The service could stay a convenience for existing Bybit traders who want an index fund such as the Invesco QQQ ETF in the same account ^[13], and compete with nobody. It could pull new accounts away from brokerages in the same jurisdictions, with the more than 80 million users Bybit cites as the funnel ^[10]. Or the permitted-jurisdiction and KYC requirements ^[14] could keep the eligible group small enough that neither happens.

We think the second is what Bybit is building for. It left custody and clearing with Alpaca ^[2] and kept the customer relationship, since users trade from their Bybit accounts ^[1]. Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO, described the launch in broader terms. "Financial markets have long been separated across different products and platforms, but users increasingly expect a more connected experience," Zhou said ^[12].

We would be wrong if stock balances stay small against the 80 million users, or if the funded accounts turn out to be almost entirely traders who already used Bybit's crypto products.