Jerry Li, Head of Product at Bybit: The crypto world is splitting into two camps—platforms meeting institutional-grade standards and speculative-oriented ecosystems.
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Jerry Li, Head of Product at Bybit: The crypto world is splitting into two camps—platforms meeting institutional-grade standards and speculative-oriented ecosystems.
“The cryptocurrency market is bifurcating into institutional-grade platforms and speculative ecosystems.”
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
Jerry Li, Head of Product at Bybit, says the crypto market is splitting into two camps: one comprising platforms meeting institutional-grade standards, and the other consisting of more speculative ecosystems.
As the crypto market matures amid heightened volatility and shifting macro conditions, the divide between speculative activity and institutional-grade financial infrastructure is becoming increasingly clear.
In this conversation, Jerry Li—Bybit’s Head of Financial Products and Wealth Management—delves deeply into how retail and institutional investors are reallocating capital, why yield-generating products are drawing growing attention, and what kind of platforms possess long-term viability.
From the rise of stablecoin strategies to the steadily increasing importance of transparency, regulation, and risk management, Li paints a future in which only a handful of trusted platforms will truly matter in the next phase of the crypto industry.
The Street: Crypto markets have been volatile over the past few months. As Head of Financial Products and Wealth Management at Bybit, could you walk us through how retail and institutional users are allocating capital today?
Retail and institutional capital allocation differ significantly—but overall, traders and investors are moving away from the “all-in or all-out” mindset toward greater caution. Institutional investors haven’t abandoned crypto, and retail investors remain keen on on-chain yield opportunities.
This shift reflects a broader, more complex backdrop. Gold prices fell during regional conflicts, yet BTC rose 26% in the 100 days following the outbreak of conflict—leading some analysts to argue that BTC is exhibiting safe-haven asset characteristics. Meanwhile, equity markets declined but haven’t yet entered crisis territory.
These dynamics have led to more diversified capital flows and fluctuating market liquidity. Our focus is on helping both retail and institutional clients manage assets prudently, offering yield products beyond traditional trading tools. For investors seeking stable returns, Bybit provides BYUSDT, Mantle Vault, and customized private wealth management solutions. We’re also seeing rising user enthusiasm for Bybit Earn, Bybit Futures, and tokenized commodities—including gold (XAU), silver (XAG), and crude oil (CLU)—listed on Bybit TradFi.
The Street: There’s a view circulating that crypto investors are pivoting toward fixed-income products—such as stablecoin yield and structured yield strategies. Are you observing this trend at Bybit? And if so, how significant is this shift relative to trading activity?
Absolutely—we’re seeing it clearly. It was precisely during this period that Bybit launched BYUSDT, our native USDT-pegged token, which offers APR yield and can be used as margin on Bybit. By end-March, assets under management (AUM) in our Earn product Mantle Vault—a chain-native stablecoin product combining yield generation with DeFi composability—doubled to $200 million.
This trend is also reflected in our product roadmap. We’re continuously expanding our offerings to meet demand for assets situated at the intersection of traditional finance and on-chain opportunities. In March, we launched perpetual contracts for XAU (gold) and XAG (silver) against USDT with up to 75x leverage, as well as CLUSDT (crude oil) perpetuals with up to 50x leverage.
The Street: Crypto “yield” products have historically carried a poor reputation. Platforms like Celsius and Voyager once offered high yields—only to collapse entirely. What reassures users today that Bybit’s yield products operate on fundamentally different mechanisms?
User skepticism is healthy. When investors see 10% stablecoin yields, their first question should be: “How can this possibly be sustainable long-term?” Given repeated collapses across the crypto industry, such skepticism is entirely justified.
But our model really is different. The yield generated by Bybit products has identifiable, transparent sources. Take Mantle Vault as an example: its yield stems from dynamic on-chain strategies. Base yield comes from Ethena staking rewards and Aave supply incentives, supplemented by time-bound or fixed-pool incentives from Bybit and Mantle. We avoid black-box or self-referential mechanisms entirely.
Additionally, following the severe stress test of February 2025, Bybit invested heavily in operational security and reserve transparency. Ultimately, the safety of yield products hinges on the underlying infrastructure.
The Street: How do you balance offering attractive yields against robust risk management? Where does your internal line fall on this trade-off?
Our principle is simple: sustainability always comes first; attractiveness second.
This may surprise many—but in fact, our yields rank among the most conservative in the crypto industry. Sustaining high yields over the long term is typically impossible without trade-offs.
You may occasionally see Bybit launch ultra-high-yield products—weekly or quarterly—but these are strictly time-limited. From day one, our product design leans conservative, aiming for long-term sustainability.
Moreover, we diversify APR sources across multiple strategies, on-chain mechanisms, and structured products offered by institutional partners—and cap the share of high-risk yield within total AUM.
The Street: Bybit built its reputation on derivatives and trading. As you pivot toward stability and capital preservation, how do you ensure you don’t lose your core trading users—the very ones who joined for trading in the first place?
Simply put: we’re growing. Over the years, Bybit has expanded far beyond crypto trading to encompass TradFi trading, institutional solutions, wealth products, payments, and market research. Yet we’ve never scaled back investment in derivatives trading.
In 2025, our average daily derivatives trading volume stood at approximately $29 billion—keeping us among the world’s top derivatives exchanges. We’re also continuously enhancing matching engine performance and liquidity depth.
The Street: Let’s imagine revisiting this topic a year from now, after markets have recovered. Which platforms do you think will have proven resilient—and which won’t? What separates the winners from the losers?
This year will mark a watershed moment for the crypto market—drawing a definitive line between institutional-grade infrastructure and everything else. Looking ahead, only a few true institutional-grade platforms will survive, alongside some specialized vertical players—while others unable to adapt will fade out.
The transformation extends well beyond product-level changes. I love this industry—and I believe Bybit’s future lies in becoming a new financial platform serving those underserved by traditional finance, crypto-curious individuals, and institutions ready to engage.
Platforms built to last share several traits: they embrace regulation decisively—not resist it; they invest in bank-grade security infrastructure; they don’t rely solely on derivatives trading for revenue; and they earn user trust through sustained, transparent action.
Transparency is paramount. Platforms that build trust through concrete actions, open communication, and built-in transparency forge unshakable moats. This will become the single most critical differentiator in competition.
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