Bybit, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange, is about to ax 15 perpetual contracts in one of its biggest delistings of this year. Starting from Oct. 21, ByBit users will see the removal of BDXN, NODE, AGT, FIS, SKATE, FHE, GORK, TANSSI, TOKEN, OSMO, SCAU, DMC, MAJOR, FRAG and SWELL against USDT, phased out in three windows.
The tickets on the list may look random, but digging deeper at their market profiles shows a common thread: most of them are low liquidity, small-cap assets that have struggled to keep any meaningful derivatives activity alive. Osmosis (OSMO) and StaFi (FIS) once carried traction in DeFi staking circles but now report 24-hour volume under $10 million.
Skate and Tanssi were metaverse/GameFi experiments that saw activity peak in 2021-2022 but have since faded to micro-cap levels. Others, like NODE or MAJOR of the Toncoin ecosystem, have barely any footprint outside niche exchanges.
"Black Friday" burden
Bybit says its own delisting policy points to liquidity thresholds and risk management as the driver, so contracts with insufficient depth distort funding rates, making them impractical for hedging or speculation, and as a result, they get delisted. Cutting them clears balance-sheet noise and reduces the risk of "out of order" liquidations.
The exchange, which reported $3.5 billion in daily spot turnover and $11.5 billion in assets, is signaling that it wants derivatives markets to reflect only liquid, investable projects — not tokens on life support.
Interestingly, these measurements came after low-liquidity contracts with exaggerated pressure were among the key triggers behind "Black Friday" on Oct. 10, raising the question of whether Bybit decided to delist them to prevent a similar event in the future.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team