Trends in Focus
Ben Zhou Highlights Compliance, Growth, and AI in Crypto
DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit, shared his candid views on crypto compliance, sensible AI deployments, and new growth drivers at TOKEN2049. Sharing the main stage with panelists from other leading exchanges, Ben addressed the growing pains of mainstreaming exchanges, and how they are adapting to meet increasing regulatory requirements at the annual premier crypto event, attended by over 30,000 participants and amplifying leading voices in the blockchain and crypto economy.
Advance Compliance: A Necessary Luxury
"Compliance is not cheap, but the penalties are more expensive. And it comes with not just monetary but also other consequences," Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit remarked.
Steering the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Ben Zhou admitted Bybit was on the same learning curve as other major exchanges.
"We are not the first ones, and we have the opportunities to learn and adapt the business," he said about the rapid changes in the compliance landscape, acknowledging that all exchanges including Bybit are ramping up their compliance efforts.
Only a year ago, exchanges used to place an amount limit on compliance checks; but Bybit has been taking a prudent approach of standardizing compliance and safety checks on practically transaction of any amount, after witnessing "what had happened in the industry," he disclosed.
Compliance overhead has increased accordingly. "The operations are getting a lot heavier with a lot more manpower," he said, adding that third-party tools such as Chainalysis have been useful in improving due diligence and KYC, adding costs but also efficiency.
At the time of writing, a team of over 50 risk experts operate Bybit's AI-enhanced risk engine alongside a growing legal and compliance function comprising compliance officers of various specialities and in-house counsel.
Ben also took pride in crypto's contribution to improving compliance practices and raised the bar to make it harder for rogue actors to bypass sanctions. "In our industry, we have revolutionized how compliance has been done. For instance, someone trying to access our platform from a sanctioned address would be identified within minutes and the address would be blocked. The industry is revolutionizing the old ways of doing things in compliance," he said.