Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2026, Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou argued that DeFi's cross-border, decentralised architecture is structurally at odds with centralised regulatory frameworks — making clear-cut rules difficult to draft and enforce.
Zhou described the current moment as a "regulatory honeymoon period" for DeFi, noting that neither the EU's MiCA framework nor most other jurisdictions have issued a formal definition of decentralised finance. That ambiguity is actively enabling regulatory arbitrage across the industry.
When the honeymoon ends, Zhou expects decentralised exchanges to face scrutiny first. The contrast with CEXs is already stark: centralised venues now operate under bank-level compliance reviews, while DEXs remain largely threshold-free and pseudonymous. Full DeFi regulation, he cautioned, is still some way off.
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