Bybit EU vs global: which one applies to you

In 2024–2025 the European Union brought crypto exchanges under a single rulebook: MiCA, the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. To keep serving customers in the European Economic Area (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), an exchange now needs an EU authorisation as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP).

Bybit's answer was to set up a dedicated European entity, Bybit EU GmbH, which was authorised as a CASP by Austria's Financial Market Authority (FMA) on 28 May 2025 and is listed on the ESMA register. That single Austrian licence 'passports' across roughly 29 EEA countries, so one EU platform — bybit.eu — serves the whole bloc. The global platform, bybit.com, continues to serve the rest of the world.

This is the part most comparisons miss. MiCA regulates spot crypto services — custody, exchange, transfers — but it does not cover derivatives. Perpetuals and futures fall under a different EU regime (MiFID II), which Bybit EU is not yet authorised for.

The practical result: bybit.eu is spot-only right now. If you're an EEA resident who wants Bybit's perpetuals, futures or options, they aren't available on the regulated EU platform yet. The global bybit.com offers the full derivatives suite, but EEA residents are being phased off it (see below). This is a genuine trade-off, and any site that tells EEA users they'll get 100× perps on Bybit today is glossing over it.

MiCA included a grandfathering window that let previously-operating platforms keep serving EEA customers while they got licensed. That window closed on 1 July 2026. Since then, an unlicensed global platform can no longer onboard or serve EEA residents — which is why new EEA sign-ups on bybit.com are no longer possible.

For existing EEA accounts, Bybit's wind-down on the global site is gradual — trading and deposits are limited first, followed by a withdrawal-only period — with advance notice rather than a single hard cut-off. If you live in the EEA and are signing up today, bybit.eu with code MICA is the platform you'll be on either way.

Because the two platforms are separate entities running separate campaigns, the welcome rewards differ. The global platform runs the larger, widely-advertised new-user reward campaigns. The EU platform's campaigns are smaller and spot-focused, and Bybit's own event terms state that EEA users are excluded from many global promotions.

We're deliberately not printing a headline dollar figure here, because Bybit's rewards are task-based, region-specific and change often — and the giant numbers you see plastered across other sites are 'up to' ceilings that require six-figure deposits. Our fees and how-to guides explain what's actually realistic. The honest summary: global campaigns are bigger, EU campaigns are smaller and spot-only, and both require identity verification.

Match the platform to where you legally reside, then use its code: