Bybit has expanded its Perp Options product by adding six new tickers: Tesla, Invesco QQQ ETF, Direxion Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF (SOXL), Micron Technology, SK Hynix, and Sandisk. This brings the lineup to eight contracts, joining SpaceX and Nvidia which launched on September 17. The company is also running a trading challenge through October 27 that distributes up to 70,000 USDT across two reward pools based on first trades and volume rankings.
These contracts do not settle against actual shares but are priced off Bybit’s own perpetual markets for those underlying assets. They trade 24/7 with European-style settlement, meaning positions can only be exercised at expiry. All settlements occur in USDT via the Unified Trading Account, allowing fractional lot sizes and avoiding standard brokerage requirements. The expansion includes semiconductor-heavy names like SOXL, which is already a leveraged ETF, compounding volatility risks. Bybit notes liquidity may thin outside regular market hours, a tradeoff for round-the-clock access.
The expansion of Bybit’s Perp Options highlights a strategic push into synthetic TradFi derivatives that bypass traditional brokerage infrastructure. By leveraging its existing perpetual contract pricing mechanisms, Bybit offers continuous equity exposure without requiring users to hold actual shares or navigate regulated options exchanges. This approach capitalizes on demand for after-hours trading and simplified access, particularly for high-profile tech stocks and leveraged ETFs like SOXL. However, the reliance on internal price feeds rather than external exchange data introduces specific counterparty and valuation risks inherent to centralized derivative platforms.
From an institutional adoption perspective, this move underscores the growing convergence between crypto-native trading interfaces and traditional financial instruments. While competitors like Coinbase and Robinhood pursue tokenized shares or extended-hours trading, Bybit differentiates itself by offering options structures directly on perpetuals. The inclusion of complex, leveraged underlyings such as SOXL raises operational risk concerns regarding decay and volatility management for retail participants. Regulators will likely scrutinize how these synthetic products interact with existing securities laws, especially given the lack of explicit jurisdictional exclusions in the announcement.
