The Bybit U-Card Tutorial Is Everywhere — Mainland Users, Hold Off: Even If It Opens, You Can't Buy USDT with CNY

The short version

The Bybit U-card sign-up tutorial has been spreading a lot lately, and the steps look simple.

I cross-checked the official terms, what you can actually see, and forum feedback, and the conclusion came out different from the tutorial:

• Mainland users shouldn't follow it. Officially, it doesn't serve mainland China.
• An account opened by changing your residence can be terminated at any time.
• Even if it opens, you can't buy USDT with CNY inside it.

Mainland China is on the not-served list

The Bybit Help Center has a page called "Service Restricted Countries," marked updated September 1. It lists the regions it doesn't serve: the US, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and more.

The same page has a more important line: if it decides a user misrepresented their location or residence, Bybit reserves the right to immediately terminate the account and liquidate all positions.

One thing that gets overlooked: identity verification uses a real ID plus a face scan. The platform knows who you are — switching networks won't hide it.

What's wrong with "opening in the Taiwan region"

The circulating tutorial roughly says: use a Taiwan network and set your residence to Taiwan to open the card. There are three problems:

1. Being in the mainland while setting residence to Taiwan is exactly the "misrepresentation" in the terms. The account can be terminated at any time, and the card balance and bound charges are affected along with it.
2. Verification uses a real ID. The platform knows your real identity from the start.
3. The login environment has to stay stable. Users report that US and Japan networks wouldn't let them in; switching networks back and forth is also widely flagged as easy to trigger risk control.

A Taiwan-region account's P2P can't find CNY

This part is a real test. On September 30, on an account registered in the Taiwan region, I searched the P2P fiats one by one:

• Search CNY: No records found.
• Search TWD: No records found.
• Search AUD as a control: results appear normally.

The default fiat is USD, and most payment methods are Georgian banks.

In other words, even if the account opens, you can't buy USDT with CNY on Bybit — you can only transfer USDT in from another platform. At that point you may as well open the card on a platform that takes CNY from the start.

Getting the card isn't the same as paying reliably

The forum has a few reports, all others' self-accounts I can't verify, but put together they show the problem:

• Someone bound an Australia-region card over a Philippines network, and won't know if it charges until renewal day.
• Someone's Taiwan-region card had its payment declined outright.
• Someone paid with a Europe-region card successfully — and the subscription account they paid was banned right after.

Binding the card, charging it, and keeping the account alive are three separate gates. In the forum I didn't see anyone clear all three.

Mainland users can rethink the approach

If all you want is "a card that can pay in USD," it doesn't have to be Bybit:

• Gate: a mainland ID can pass KYC, the U-card has a 0 opening fee, and CNY can buy USDT via its C2C with Alipay.
• OKX: C2C can buy USDT with CNY, but its card isn't available in the mainland — good as an entrance for buying USDT, which you then move to a platform that does issue cards.

What this article doesn't verify

• All three forum reports are others' self-accounts, unverified.
• "Switching networks back and forth easily triggers risk control" comes from multiple tutorials and user warnings, not a real test.
• The official terms go by the page captured around September 20; platform rules can change at any time.

Domestically, crypto trading isn't recognized; if something goes wrong there's no legal protection, and a loss is yours to bear. In one line: in a region the platform explicitly doesn't serve, an account obtained by changing your details is itself the biggest risk.