UK invites crypto giant Bybit to London to win over some of UAE’s innovation shine

Economic development officials with links to the U.K. government invited Bybit leadership to London this week in what appears to be a bid to emulate the momentum of Dubai, where the cryptocurrency exchange is based, and the rest of the United Arab Emirates.

CEO Ben Zhou said the message from the U.K. is “they are very eager to invite big business to establish bases and create jobs,” and discuss forthcoming pro-crypto regulation.

Bybit was founded by Zhou in 2018, and four years later moved its headquarters to Dubai from his native Singapore. It is ranked the second-largest crypto exchange by CoinGecko, trailing only Binance, which set up in the UAE in 2025.

The arrival of crypto giants like Bybit and Binance acted as a magnet to attract smaller crypto companies to the region, something the U.K. would like to emulate, Zhou said.

“One interesting thing is there hasn't been any momentum built in the U.K.,” Zhou said in an interview at Paris Blockchain Week. “If you look at UAE, where there are big exchanges like Bybit or Binance, once we announced we're going to be there, smaller players followed, and that created this momentum.”

Zhou's invitation includes meetings with the Financial Conduct Authority and representatives of the House of Lords, and coincides with UK Fintech Week and a Treasury plan to revamp payment systems with stablecoins and the spread of tokenization.

“I have meetings with FCA. I have meetings with the House of Lords just to discuss what do you want to do with crypto,” Zhou said, without naming the U.K. government department that extended the invitation.

“We were invited specifically by some economic development board who said ‘We can get a direct line to the prime minister.’ There is an agenda to push for innovation, especially in crypto,” Zhou said.

Neither the Treasury nor Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, responded to requests for comment. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology also did not respond to requests for comment. The FCA had not replied by press time.

The invitation's timing is interesting as the UAE has suffered direct attacks from Iran during the U.S.-Israel war that started Feb. 28, prompting tens of thousands of residents and tourists to leave the country. One in eight British residents has left, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.

The U.K. government has seen "the outflow of money and companies going to the UAE. They want to win it back. Precisely, now is good timing,” Zhou said.