Discover Bybit’s flexible crypto loan options—borrow against your assets to trade, stake, or earn rewards without selling your crypto.

Borrowing funds for your crypto trading can be an excellent capital efficiency measure. In many cases, it pays to borrow the cryptocurrency of your choice against collateral instead of buying it outright. Crypto loans can also help you access unique yield-generation opportunities, such as leveraged staking. Savvy traders and investors in crypto have long known that borrowing is one of the key avenues for improving the efficiency, flexibility and profitability of your operations. 

Bybit offers you several ways to borrow cryptocurrency. These include flexible rate and fixed-rate overcollateralized crypto loans, Unified Trading Account (UTA) auto-borrowing, the Margin Staked SOL product and Launchpool Borrow & Stake. These options allow you to access crypto funds in highly efficient and flexible ways to support your trades, earn 

 rewards or receive early-stage tokens for free. 

In this article, we’ll look in detail at these four ways of borrowing funds with Bybit, and discuss their key features, use cases and benefits. 

1. Crypto Loans — Liquidity without selling

Bybit offers its users overcollateralized crypto loans, with both flexible and fixed-rate interest. Flexible crypto loans feature variable interest, updated hourly based on prevailing market conditions. Fixed-rate loans offer preset interest for borrowing tenures of 7, 14, 30, 60, 90 or 180 days, depending upon your preference. 

Flexible rate loans are supplied directly by the Bybit platform, while fixed-rate loans are procured through Bybit’s 

 (P2P) lending service. Crypto lenders post their offers on Bybit P2P and specify their preferred conditions, such as the loan duration and interest rate. Borrowers may choose from the existing offers, or create a separate loan order with the interest rate and other conditions they’d like to access. The system then evaluates orders from lenders and borrowers in order to find the optimal match and connect the two parties.

Since early May 2025, the two loan varieties have been integrated into a single user interface under a unified product umbrella called Crypto Loans. You can now use the same shared collateral to secure both flexible and fixed-rate loans. Your collateral can also be used across different markets and products on the platform, such as the Spot and Derivatives markets and Bybit staking products.

 (LTV) thresholds applicable for margin limits, margin calls and liquidation — 80%, 85% and 92%, respectively. 

Bybit offers a wide variety of crypto assets for borrowing and collateral, including 

 and the leading high-cap cryptocurrencies, such as 

Interest rates for all Crypto Loans are compounded hourly. Fixed loans have a set rate in a range specified by the supplier and/or borrower, and flexible-rate loans are subject to a floating rate based on market conditions.

Flexible Crypto Loans are particularly useful for traders who wish to borrow with maximum flexibility and efficiency, repaying the amount when they find it most suitable based on their trading activity. For example, if you borrow funds for just 15 hours to facilitate some short-term trades, you’ll only pay interest for those 15 hours and not a single hour more. 

On the other hand, Fixed-Rate Crypto Loans suit borrowers who would like to operate in complete certainty, regardless of market developments, by locking in a preset interest rate.

2. UTA auto-loans — active capital with full control

Borrowing funds is automatically enabled in certain scenarios under your Bybit 

 (UTA). Automatic borrowing in the UTA is triggered when the following situations arise:

UTA loans aren’t available for manual borrowing; they’re only automatically triggered under the above scenarios. However, repayments are possible both in manual and auto modes. Interest rates for these loans are updated on an hourly basis. 

One key benefit of UTA loans is their applicability to spot margin trading on Bybit. With spot margin trading, you can use assets in your spot account as collateral for 

 with leverage ratios of up to 10x. Supported collateral assets include over 200 cryptocurrencies, including all high-cap coins. 

UTA loans are ideal for leverage trading aficionados, and for active traders who place frequent orders and might find themselves short on funds during a particular trade. The auto-borrowing function of these loans ensures that your orders go through, even if there’s a shortfall of funds or specific assets in your wallet. 

3. Margin Staked SOL — yield boost through leverage

 allows you to use leverage to boost your Solana liquid staking yields. To use this product, you’ll need to commit your SOL funds to Solana staking, which Bybit will manage through the use of the 

. Sanctum is a leading provider of infrastructure and services for Solana staking. 

You can borrow additional funds to stake with up to 4x leverage available. Upon staking, you’ll be issued the 

 (LST) that accrues your staking rewards. 

The interest that you pay on the borrowed funds is updated hourly. All interest repayments are handled automatically, either when the user decides to stop staking or their losses reach 90% of their staked principal. You can redeem your SOL funds at any time.

4. Borrow & Stake on Launchpool — multiply your rewards with minimal funds

option through its Launchpool. By staking your crypto funds and borrowing up to 3x of your principal, you can earn rewards through free tokens of projects offered via the Launchpool. Reward tokens for potential future market stars are usually issued for free by early-stage web3 projects.

is extremely user-friendly, and it takes just a single click to borrow and stake. As with the other three methods of borrowing, the interest rate on your borrowed funds is subject to hourly updates.

Choosing the right tool for your strategy

The four Bybit loan options above each have unique benefits and use cases. Deciding which option best suits you will depend upon your trading strategy, goals, available capital, familiarity with spot margin trading, experience level and openness to leverage. 

The below table summarizes the four loan products by user profile, primary use case and capital efficiency model. 

Bybit’s Crypto Loan products are ideal — not just for borrowing, but also for utilizing your existing idle funds for margin trading and staking to amplify yields. Each product type applies to different potential scenarios:

With the above loan options, crypto borrowing is no longer just about meeting fund shortfalls: now it’s a valid strategy to get the most out of your crypto trading.

Intermediate

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Bybit Loan: Flexible paths to capital efficiency

Oil is the most volatile major commodity in global markets, significantly more so than gold. It’s not uncommon for oil prices to rise or fall by 5% or more in a single day. 

Introduction: Oil as the most volatile major commodity

Oil is the most volatile major commodity in global markets, significantly more so than gold. It’s not uncommon for oil prices to rise or fall by 5% or more in a single day. This makes oil one of the most attractive instruments for active traders, offering frequent price swings and rapid opportunities.

Unlike most commodities, oil prices are influenced not only by global demand and macroeconomic conditions, but also by direct supply decisions made by producers. These decisions can trigger major shifts — especially when they come from the OPEC cartel, which plays a unique and powerful role in managing global oil output.

Supply side: OPEC, Russia and market control

Oil supply isn’t fixed like that of gold or silver. It’s flexible and largely managed by OPEC and its allies — known collectively as OPEC Plus — including Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Qatar and other producers. Together, they control more than 35% of global oil supply.

Their decisions to increase or cut production can move the market instantly. For example, OPEC is now considering a third consecutive supply hike, possibly increasing output by 138,000 or even 411,000 barrels per day. Moves of this scale tend to push oil prices lower.

Traders monitor OPEC meetings closely, because supply decisions directly impact price direction. The next major meeting — scheduled for July 2025 — could set the tone for oil markets for the rest of the year.

Demand side: Tariff tensions and global growth

On the demand side, the biggest current factor is Trump’s trade policy. New tariffs slow global trade, and slower trade reduces global growth — and with it, the demand for oil.

This was clearly seen on April 2, when Trump announced a new round of tariffs. Oil prices quickly dropped from $70 to $54 in just a few days — a 22% decline. Later, when tariffs were delayed, oil prices recovered to above $60.

It’s a clear example of how traders respond to political headlines. If more tariffs are announced, oil could fall again. But if a US-China trade agreement is reached, oil prices might rebound sharply on improved demand expectations.

More catalysts ahead: OPEC, Iran and inflation pressure

Beyond trade policy, the following supply-side catalysts are coming into play.

Oil is traded through two main contracts:

Both contracts are highly correlated. Traders choose between them based on geographic preference, liquidity and contract structure.

Technical analysis: Key levels for WTI crude

Looking at the daily chart of WTI crude, the following important patterns are in play.

These levels offer traders clear entry and exit points, based on momentum, reversals and breakout setups.

Conclusion: Oil is set for a volatile summer

Oil remains one of the most dynamic assets to trade, driven by shifting supply, policy decisions and changing global demand. The combination of OPEC’s actions, geopolitical negotiations and tariff developments creates continuous opportunities.

In the coming weeks, make sure to focus on these key drivers:

From a technical perspective, $60 is the key level. A decisive move above or below it could define the next major trend.

For now, the blend of macro news, OPEC production plans and technical volatility makes oil one of the top markets for traders looking to catch fast and meaningful moves.

Advanced

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Bybit X FXStreet Commodity Report: Crude oil sees key support at $60 with upside at $68 if tariffs ease

Discover Tokyo Games Token (TGT), Japan’s first AAA web3 gaming token powering immersive play-to-earn experiences like the upcoming TOKYO BEAST.

Japan’s significant share of the global gaming market ranks third largest worldwide and generated $26 billion in revenue in 2024 alone. Now, as the gaming industry’s focus continues to shift toward 

 gaming, it’s not surprising that Japan has jumped on the bandwagon by launching the country’s first blockchain-based AAA gaming platform, Tokyo Games.

With a vision to enrich the current Web3 gaming scene, Tokyo Games will debut into this niche with its much-anticipated AAA game, 

The Tokyo Games Token (TGT), which will facilitate the platform’s growth and functionality, is at the heart of its operations.

The Tokyo Games Token is the token that will be used to drive the operation of all games exclusively built on the Tokyo Games platform. 

The gaming platform is built by Play3 Ltd and is backed by top mobile gaming developers in Japan, such as Cygames and gumi Inc.

The token, which has been dubbed “the first AAA token in Japan,” launched on May 21, 2025, and was issued on the Immutable zkEVM chain.

TGT has a maximum total supply of one billion tokens distributed across various stakeholders on the platform. TGT unlocks have varying vesting schedules designed to promote the project’s health and sustainability.

Notably, the team and the foundation have locked their tokens for one year after the token generation event (TGE) as a show of commitment to making the project successful.

 for the Tokyo Games ecosystem, TGT will have the following three uses:

 is the first web3 game developed by Tokyo Games. Developed through a collaboration with Web3 gaming giant Immutable, 

, a play-to-earn (P2E) game, has a team of over 80 full-time developers and AAA production to produce impressive gameplay.

Its strategic collaboration with Immutable opens up access to the blockchain’s infrastructure, including the Immutable Passport (non-custodial wallet) and the Immutable Global Orderbook for liquidity.

The game’s futuristic storyline takes place in Tokyo, Japan, and comprises three elements: humans, replicants (sentient androids) and BEASTs.

is divided into two systems: BASE and TRIALS.

BASE is for web3 players who leverage BEAST NFTs for a blockchain-based gaming experience. When on the BASE part of the game, you can stake TGT tokens to mint BEAST RAWDISK NFTs. Once minted, you can stake these NFTs to earn rewards. You can create stronger BEAST NFTs in two ways via the LAB feature: breed BEAST NFTs to create a new child BEAST or adjust BEAST parameters according to the battle environment.

 is designed for Web 2.0 players who can win PROXY BEAST, a copy of the BEAST NFT, from gacha and use it to participate in battles for a chance to win TGT tokens and BEAST RAWDISK NFTs.

TOKYO BEAST also lets players participate in prediction games to win TGT tokens. On the BASE system, you can join in prediction games using LUCKY CHIPS, where correct predictions help you earn TGT. LUCKY CHIPS are earned by buying and locking LUCKY TICKET NFTs for as short as a week to two years. The longer the lockup period, the more LUCKY CHIPS the player receives. Meanwhile, players on the TRIALS system can participate in prediction games using TRIALS CHIP, which is obtained by completing daily missions.

You can buy TGT on Bybit’s spot trading platform. To celebrate the listing, Bybit is holding 

 exclusive to the following selected regions in Asia: Japan, Korea, Macau, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam.

A prize pool of nine million TGT tokens is up for grabs for those who participate in the following two events:

Tokyo Games Token is pioneering a new era in Japan’s gaming industry by launching the country’s first AAA web3 gaming ecosystem. At the center of this ecosystem is 

, a P2E game that blends immersive gameplay with blockchain-powered ownership and rewards.

Japan continues to lead in gaming innovation, and TGT brings together the nation’s gaming legacy with decentralized technology’s future. With 

 setting the stage for what's possible in Web3 entertainment, TGT could play a major role in redefining how gamers play, earn and connect digitally.

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Tokyo Games Token (TGT): Japan’s first AAA web3 gaming ecosystem

Bybit has secured a MiCAR license from Austria’s Financial Market Authority, allowing it to operate across all 29 EEA countries.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Thursday, but futures dipped Friday as markets eyed the PCE report and renewed tariff uncertainty. Gold rose 0.9% to $3,318.69 on weak job data and a court ruling blocking most Trump tariffs, boosting rate cut hopes. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, fell 4.06%, with Bitcoin down 1.16% and Ether up 0.41%, in the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today’s top performer is SAFE, up 26.8% following news that Safe is aiming to replace EOAs with modular smart account infrastructure.

Safe (SAFE), founded in 2016, is a modular smart account infrastructure aiming to replace EOAs with customizable smart contract accounts. It focuses on two key components: Safe{Core} for development and Safe{Wallet} for user interaction. 

, delivering a smoother and more transparent signing experience. Key upgrades include the removal of checkbox friction, a smarter combo button for streamlined actions, human-readable and raw transaction data for audits, a unified UI across transaction stages, redesigned sidebar notes for better context, and a complete backend refactor for improved performance and development. The update enhances clarity, speed, and control for all users.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

, allowing it to operate across all 29 EEA countries. The exchange has also established its European headquarters in Vienna and plans to hire over 100 staff. This move reinforces Bybit’s commitment to compliance and transparency while expanding localized crypto services and supporting blockchain innovation across Europe.

Yesterday, BTC spot ETFs saw a total outflow of $471.9 million, with $107.5 million from GBTC and $364.4 million from non-GBTC funds.

, with all previously earned points retroactively credited to users. Backed by $88.2M in funding, Nansen is a leading on-chain analytics platform offering users the opportunity to earn points—potentially eligible for a future airdrop—by staking tokens like HYPE, SUI, APT, SOL, TRX, ATOM, TIA, NEAR, and STRK. Users can stake through the Nansen platform or directly from their wallets by selecting Nansen as the validator. While sign-up is free, paid members may receive higher rewards due to lower participation.

Beginner

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Bybit sets up EU headquarters in Vienna after securing MiCAR license

Bybit Learn

Tech Deep Dive

From constant outages to heavy VC backing, find out why critics are becoming increasingly concerned with Solana's claims of being decentralized.

Most financial transactions occur based on a centralized model, where a third party has the authority to manage any issues. However, having one party in charge is a double-edged sword, because if that intermediary is compromised, then all client transactions can be impacted. Cryptocurrencies promise to decentralize control of a network so that there’s not one single point of failure. Does this mean that decentralized crypto is immune? And what qualifies as decentralized?

 network suffered another outage — the 12th this year. The blackout shut down the network for four hours and ten minutes, and stopped a potential 975 million transactions from occurring. In a tweet, Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Labs co-founder, explained the downtime: “As a result of the long nonce instruction, part of the network considered the block invalid, and no consensus could be reached.”

Stability issues on the Solana network caused its value to dip this year, and raised serious questions about the network’s decentralization.

This article examines the issues surrounding the Solana blockchain, and the ways in which its decentralization (or lack thereof) affects the network’s performance.

Blockchain decentralization is a governance system wherein decision-making rights are dispersed across the charge of shareholders or token holders in the majority. It’s designed to keep the network impartial, secure and accessible.

Blockchain decentralization transfers control, decision-making and supervision from a centralized entity, which could be an individual or a group, to a distributed network. The idea of decentralization is to reduce the need for trust among participants, and to lessen their capacity to influence one another to the detriment of the network’s functionality.

Decentralization is what makes the ”permissionless” and “censorship-resistant” qualities of blockchain networks possible. This means that networks can be accessed by all, and anyone can build on them without fear of undue influence or coercion. Decentralization also ensures the security and stability of the network.

The degree to which a blockchain network is decentralized is apparent in the number of distinct groups responsible for validating transactions, the number of developers building on it, and the distribution of the network’s token.

 is a method of measuring the extent of decentralization of a blockchain. It considers the unique properties of blockchain networks to get a more accurate picture of how decentralized a subject network is.

Created in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, Solana was designed to push past the throughput limitations of mainstream blockchains while keeping transaction costs low. It boasts a theoretical throughput of 710,000 transactions per second, an impressive speed achieved through the implementation of a unique hybrid proof of history (PoH) consensus mechanism that utilizes a proof of stake (PoS) synchronization engine.

However, for many industry watchers, the Solana network’s lightning-fast speed comes at a cost — namely, centralization. Despite counterclaims, detractors continue to pile up evidence that Solana lacks decent decentralization. This has caused many to wonder if Solana is truly decentralized. To answer this concern, let's examine some of the factors and unique characteristics of the Solana blockchain that lead to doubts about its degree of decentralization.

In PoS networks, security relies on staked tokens which power transaction validation. Stakers are rewarded with transaction fees and voting power. Currently, about 77.7% of all SOL tokens in circulation are staked. Since the amount of SOL allocated to the public is comparatively small, the majority of these staked SOL will belong to insiders.

Invariably, this small group of insiders wields considerable network validation power, a situation that seems to make a case for the lack of decentralization of the Solana Blockchain. 

Critics have also pointed out that the Solana Foundation is the only entity developing core nodes on the blockchain, making them a central control point and reducing the network’s decentralization. Validator nodes are a key component of a blockchain network, and are primarily responsible for reaching consensus, verifying, and updating transactions.

To understand the impact of the validator node concentration on the Solana network, it’s important to consider the number of operational nodes and who owns them. Solana scored a relatively high Nakamato Coefficient of 19. Out of the current 1,161 validators, the top 19 validators control sufficient staked Solana (and therefore voting power) to launch a coordinated attack on the network — if they wanted to.

Validation on the Solana blockchain has a higher barrier to entry, due to expensive hardware requirements for running a validator node. Since few people can afford the thousands of dollars these high-end computers cost, the Solana network inevitably tilts toward centralization.

The Solana network's decentralization is further reduced by the high amount of SOL a validator needs to break even. According to rough estimates, a validator will have to stake about $1 million worth of SOL just to break even. To ease this burden, the Solana Foundation has subsidized validators who meet specific criteria to the tune of 25,000 SOL. However, this further reduces the network’s decentralization, as it means they choose many of the validators, rather than validators choosing to operate nodes by themselves.

With a $314.2 million investment in Solana Labs (through his trading firm Alameda Research), FTX Chief Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and a few other VCs have a significant stake in the project. This has led to fears of Solana being a venture capitalist-funded project that sacrifices decentralization and security for transaction speed. In fact, the VCs control virtually half of the staked SOL, creating a single point of control that increases vulnerability and detracts from its claim of decentralization.

As previously mentioned, the latest Solana outage was on June 1, 2022, when the network went down yet again due to a bug in the "durable nonce transaction feature," according to Solana Labs developers. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated event, as the network has been hit with a string of outages. This latest one, which lasted for four-and-a-half hours, was the fifth blackout in 2022 alone. 

Solana developers have always given a reason for each outage, ranging from attackers attempting to overload the network with excess transactions to bots running rampant and bugs in the network’s systems. 

But is there a link between Solana's perceived lack of decentralization and these outages? 

While the outages are likely due to unresolved bugs inherent in the network's novel hybrid consensus mechanism, the ease with which node validators restarted the network after the outages exposed an uncomfortable degree of centralization. 

In circumstances similar to Solana’s network outages, another incident inadvertently exposed the soft, centralized underbelly of the Solana ecosystem. 

Trouble started when the whale risked auto-liquidating the 5.7 million SOL deposited as collateral for a $108 million stablecoin loan — in this case, a mix of USDC and Tether — if the slipping SOL price dropped to $22.30. The forced liquidation threatened to wipe out all of the SOL in the liquidity pool and trigger massive liquidations, potentially crashing the Solana network (again). 

Reacting hastily, the protocol unanimously proposed a solution dubbed “SLND1.” This fix sought to hijack the whale’s account, and strategically liquidate the collateral in an orderly manner, in order to avert another Solana meltdown.

However, the Solend team was forced to rescind the decision — in the face of a strident public outcry that questioned the validity of a vote suspiciously concluded within a mere 24 hours. A protocol that could make such a critical, game-changing move without adequate input from all users still has a lot of decentralizing to do. 

Solana is often referred to as the “Ethereum Killer.” Ethereum, however, is still a more popular blockchain than Solana, behind only Bitcoin.

By several indications, Ethereum proves to be more decentralized than Solana. The first is the percentage of Ethereum insiders who own assets, compared to that of Solana.

According to Messari, a mere 15% of Ethereum tokens are allocated to insiders, and the other 5% are for foundations and incentives. So, in total, 80% is available for public sale. Solana has essentially half of its tokens allocated to insiders.

However, just like Solana, Cardano also falls short of being decentralized in its governance. Both blockchains are still heavily influenced by their parent companies — Solana by Solana Labs, and Cardano by IOHK, a Hong Kong software development company. 

One point where Cardano seems to be more decentralized than Solana, however, is in its validation system. Cardano has over 852,000 delegators on its blockchain, while only about 1,811 validator nodes support Solana. Cardano seems to have made more of an effort to create transparency and decentralization.

Ripple is believed to be heavily centralized, as the project's creators hold the majority of XRP. This means they also have a significant amount of decision-making power. Ripple can easily make changes to its blockchain without a system consensus, as the company has complete access to nodes. Ripple also decides when to create new nodes.

Solana’s 1,811 validators number over twelve times the 150 validators on the Ripple blockchain network.

Investing in SOL is easy. With Bybit, one of the fastest-growing crypto exchanges in the world, you can easily buy, sell, trade, stake and hold SOL. To buy Solana, follow these few easy steps:

Among all other cryptocurrencies tagged as "Ethereum Killers," Solana is one challenger that has vastly improved transaction processing times. However, the network has come under fire for being too centralized. Solana’s string of outages may create renewed motivation to continue improving their network.

Is Solana Decentralized? Outages, VC Ties and More Worries

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