Bybit is the exchange most of our community executes signals on, and after years of daily use it remains our top pick for crypto futures: deep liquidity on the pairs that matter, fast fills, and tooling built for active traders. It isn't flawless. US residents can't use it, KYC is mandatory, and the bonus terms take some reading, but as an all-round futures venue it's the strongest of our three partner exchanges.
Most exchange reviews are written from spec sheets. This one isn't. OnwardBTC has been an affiliate partner of Bybit for years with API-level integration: our UID-verification system talks to Bybit's partner API every single day to confirm member sign-ups, and our trading community executes signals on Bybit daily, with real funds, through real market conditions, including the ugly ones. When the platform has a weak spot, we hear about it from members within hours.
Full disclosure: we earn a commission if you sign up through our link. That's exactly why the cons above are real cons, a review that hides them costs us more trust than any commission is worth.
Bybit's pricing is competitive with the top tier of the market: standard spot fees sit around 0.1%, and perpetual maker/taker fees are in the low basis points, dropping further with VIP tiers. Fee schedules change over time, so always check Bybit's current fee table before assuming exact numbers. One thing we can state plainly: signing up via our Bybit link cuts your trading fees by 10%, applied automatically, no code to type.
Bybit covers spot, USDT/USDC and inverse perpetuals, options, copy trading, earn products and a proper demo-trading mode. The reason it's our community's default execution venue, though, is liquidity: on the major perpetual pairs our signals target, order books are deep enough that entries and stop-losses fill where they should. If you're new to perpetuals, read our crypto futures guide for beginners before trading them, the product range rewards traders who know what they're doing.
Bybit runs a proof-of-reserves program, and in our years of daily use there has been no major loss-of-user-funds incident that we'd have to flag. That said, no centralized exchange is "100% safe", you're trusting a custodian, full stop. Our standing advice for any exchange: enable 2FA, whitelist withdrawal addresses, keep only your active trading capital on the platform and withdraw profits regularly. That's basic risk management, and it applies to Bybit as much as anyone else.
For: active futures traders who care about fills, spreads and tooling; signal followers who want their orders executed where liquidity is deepest; anyone trading majors with meaningful size.
Not for: US residents (it's simply not available there), traders unwilling to complete KYC, and complete beginners who haven't yet learned position sizing, the easy access to high leverage will punish you before the fee discount ever helps you.
Through our partner link you can claim up to $30,000 in deposit bonuses plus a 10% trading-fee discount, and because you'd be joining via OnwardBTC, you also get 30 days of our signals and Freya market intelligence free. Bonus tiers depend on your deposit volume and change over time, so treat the headline number as a ceiling, not a promise. The full breakdown is on our Bybit referral code page, or jump straight to the sign-up wizard.
After years of executing real trades on it daily, Bybit is the exchange we'd recommend first to an active futures trader. The liquidity is the moat, the tooling is the bonus, and the cons, geo-restrictions, mandatory KYC, fiddly bonus terms, are annoyances rather than dealbreakers. If you trade perps and you're not in a restricted jurisdiction, this is the strongest default choice among our partners.
Up to $30,000 in deposit bonuses
Bonus tiers depend on your deposit volume and can change, always check the current terms on Bybit. Trading involves risk.
