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- Bybit exchange has launched new products that are compliant with Shariah law as it targets Islamic investors.
- The exchange is targeting two billion Muslims worldwide, who have a combined $3.9 trillion in Islamic finance.
Bybit, one of the world’s largest exchanges, has launched new products that are compliant with Islamic law, including accounts with zero interest, as it targets the Muslim faithful.
CEO and co-founder Ben Zhou announced the new products on X, describing them as the “world’s first crypto Islamic accounts.”
World first Crypto Islamic account is now fully live on Bybit. Shariah-Compliant and Initial offerings include spot trading (limited to 75 Shariah-compliant tokens), DCA trading bot, and Spot Grid Bot.
Create your Islamic Sub-account now: https://t.co/BxLk8GR2N8 pic.twitter.com/ztz2RLDweJ— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) September 24, 2024
Bybit worked with Malaysia-based ICO Shariah Advisory Services Sdn. to ensure the accounts were fully compliant with Shariah principles. These accounts will be available to Muslims globally and will offer services such as spot trading, spot grid bot, DCA trading bot, and ICOs. Spot grid bots place buy orders below—and sell orders above—the reference price, with the difference between the buy and sell orders being the profit. DCA bots, on the other hand, purchase a set amount of a set crypto at regular intervals, suiting specific risk tolerance profiles.
The exchange further pledged to practice ethical financial practices, such as committing to not comingling funds and a transparent fee structure that offers straightforward trading.
To start with, the exchange has selected 19 tokens for the Muslim investors. These include Bitcoin, XRP, Uniswap, Ethereum, Algorand, Ethereum Classic, Solana and stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).
Bybit Targets 1.9 billion Muslims with Shariah Accounts
Bybit has become the first major exchange to target Muslim investors specifically. Today, there are close to two billion Muslims globally, making up at least 25% of the population in Africa, Asia, and South Asia. In Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa regions, they make up 90% of the populace.
Beyond the sheer population numbers, the Muslim economy has been growing rapidly in the past few decades. Some studies suggest that Islamic finance is worth $3.9 trillion today. The crypto world, despite being viewed as an inclusive world for the marginalized, has failed to capture this vast demographic.
One of the biggest hindrances has been a lack of clear consensus on whether crypto is halal. Initially, crypto was seen as purely speculative, discouraging most Muslims from investing. However, other interpretations have opined that all currencies are speculative to some extent, and as such, crypto isn’t uniquely against Muslim principles.
Since then, crypto has diversified into other use cases, including payments, which qualify it for investment by the Muslim faithful. It has also expanded to tokenization, sparking the rise of Shariah-compliant tokens representing real-world assets.
For Bybit, the bet on the Muslim world is long-term. The exchange moved its global headquarters to Dubai in 2022. It recently received a provisional license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority this month, further cementing its position in the Middle East.
