Bybit Backs Malaysia's Hata in $8M Series A Round

Bybit has committed fresh capital to Malaysia's regulated crypto sector, leading an $8 million Series A funding round into Hata, a dual-licensed digital asset exchange headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. The round drew additional participation from global family offices and builds on Bybit's earlier $4.2 million seed investment in the platform — signaling a deliberate, multi-stage regional strategy rather than a one-off bet.

Proceeds are earmarked for liquidity improvements, user acquisition, and new digital asset product development. For derivatives traders, "liquidity improvements" in an emerging market exchange is worth watching — deeper spot books in Southeast Asian venues can influence basis spreads and funding rate dynamics on global perp markets as regional arbitrage desks come online.

Why Malaysia? The Regulatory Angle Matters

Hata holds licenses from both the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Labuan Financial Services Authority, covering trading and custody services. That dual-licensed structure is rare in Southeast Asia and positions Hata as a compliant on-ramp for a market of over 209,000 registered users, with 1.04 billion Malaysian ringgits — approximately $225 million — in transaction volume processed through 2025.

Malaysia's regulatory environment has been maturing rapidly. Bank Negara Malaysia is currently piloting three sandbox programs targeting ringgit-backed stablecoins and tokenized bank deposits for cross-border settlement. Participating institutions include Standard Chartered, CIMB Group, and Maybank. The central bank also published a three-year asset tokenization roadmap in November, co-led with the Securities Commission. A ringgit-backed stablecoin, RMJDT, has already launched on the Zetrix blockchain under the sandbox framework.

For perp traders, stablecoin infrastructure expansion in a new jurisdiction typically signals increased fiat-to-crypto on-ramp capacity — a structural tailwind for regional trading volumes and, eventually, open interest on major pairs.

How Does Bybit's Southeast Asia Push Affect Perp Markets?

Bybit's geographic diversification — Malaysia now, MENA next — is a deliberate hedge against regulatory concentration risk. In March, the exchange appointed Derek Dai as country manager for the MENA region, with plans to expand UAE dirham access and build banking partnerships. Combined with the Malaysia play, Bybit is constructing a multi-jurisdictional liquidity network that could meaningfully expand its retail and institutional user base over the next 12–24 months.

From a market structure perspective, broader Bybit user growth matters for funding rates. As of mid-2025, Bybit remains the world's fifth-largest exchange by trading volume. A sustained increase in retail participation — particularly from high-engagement populations in Southeast Asia — tends to push funding rates on major perps (BTC, ETH, SOL) toward positive territory as directional long bias increases. Traders running basis trades or funding arbitrage strategies should monitor whether Bybit's regional expansion correlates with shifts in its platform-specific funding rates over the coming quarters.

What Blackperp's Engine Shows

While this story is fundamentally about Bybit's strategic positioning, the engine is flagging an interesting signal on ENAUSDT at $0.114 — a token with direct exposure to Bybit's ecosystem given ENA's deep integration with centralized exchange yield products.

The engine reads a neutral bias with 61% confidence in a ranging regime with medium volatility. The standout signal is the basis trade setup: combined basis of -610.6 bps, with annualized funding at -610.5 bps. That's a deeply negative funding environment — crowded shorts are paying to hold positions, creating a textbook long carry setup for traders willing to hold spot against a short perp hedge.

The cross-exchange funding divergence is equally notable: a 0.5625% spread between Binance (-0.5575%) and OKX (0.0050%), flagged as extreme divergence. With Bybit showing no available rate, the arbitrage window across venues is structurally wide. The DeFi-CeFi funding gap adds further texture — CeFi sits at -0.5575% versus DeFi's +0.0013%, a 55.88 bps gap suggesting CeFi shorts are crowded while DeFi longs are building. Mean reversion pressure is accumulating.

Key support levels on ENA are clustered at $0.11 and $0.10 — liquidation-dense zones that could act as a floor if short squeeze dynamics materialize. Traders should size accordingly and watch for a funding rate normalization trigger.