27.04.2026 14:52
Dozens of Turkish influencers have been exposed for maintaining Bybit's referral system despite the explicit ban by the CMB. These influencers, who earn income by convincing Turkish users to sign up for the crypto exchange, continue their activities despite the prohibition. Here are the details...
With the enactment of Law No. 7518 in July 2024, the Capital Markets Board (CMB) explicitly banned unlicensed foreign cryptocurrency platforms from offering referral and affiliate programs to Turkish users. Many major exchanges, led by Binance, removed Turkish language support and shut down their referral systems. Despite this ban, Bybit continues its referral program uninterrupted through Turkish influencers. When referral links are clicked, the influencers' personal referral pages on Bybit open, and commissions in USDT are paid to the influencers for each new user registration.
Experts state that this activity constitutes the crime of providing unauthorized cryptocurrency services under Law No. 7518, for both Bybit and the influencers sharing the referral links. This offense carries a prison sentence of 3 to 5 years and a judicial fine of up to 10,000 days.
HUNDREDS OF TURKISH INFLUENCERS' REFERRAL LINKS IDENTIFIED Hundreds of social media and Telegram posts containing Bybit referral links were examined. Experts emphasize that both the platform and the influencers making these posts are effectively committing crimes; they note that these actions simultaneously violate the bans on unauthorized cryptocurrency service provision and misleading advertising. Here are some of them:
Barbarians, a trading community founded by 3 Turkish crypto influencers, earns commission income by directing users to Bybit. The Barbarians group drew attention by closing its website and hiding its social media accounts after Haberler.com published news about unauthorized crypto activities.
SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS CONTINUE UNABATED Influencers continue to direct users to the platform by sharing content that appears to be their own experiences and claiming to earn high income. Crypto influencer Caner Saltık, known by the pseudonym Kripto Bot & Gem, continues to actively use the Bybit referral system.
It has been determined that some well-known influencers in the cryptocurrency sector continue to earn income through referral links on Bybit. Among these influencers are crypto figures such as Lord of Crypto, Crypto Fred, and CryptoLFT. It has been observed that after some of these mostly anonymous accounts announced that identity-based login to social media would begin within three months, they moved their activities to Telegram. The YOYOW channel, with over 100,000 subscribers, became the most striking example of this situation. In the channel, where a Bybit link with referral code 81061 was shared, users were invited to leveraged trading, yet no "advertisement" or "partnership" disclaimer was included. Bybit's failure to close its referral system to Turkish users has become a topic of debate.