LISBON, Portugal, Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bybit, the New Financial Platform trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, announced its participation in Hong Kong FinTech Week (HKFTW) 2026, Asia’s premier fintech summit bringing together global financial leaders, regulators, and innovators at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from November 2 to 6, 2026.

Bybit’s senior leadership will take the stage during the two-day main conference, joining more than 1,000 global speakers and 45,000 participants from over 120 economies at one of the year’s most anticipated events for changemakers in financial services and innovation.

Ben Zhou, Co-founder and CEO of Bybit, will deliver a fireside chat on the Main Stage on November 3 titled “Bridging the Divide: The Next Chapter of TradFi & Crypto Convergence.” The session will explore how AI-driven platform innovation, institutional-grade infrastructure and asset tokenization are reshaping the boundary between traditional financial markets and the digital asset ecosystem.

Sean Ballard, Head of Derivatives and Institutional Business at Bybit, will join a panel discussion titled “The Future of Trading: Next-Generation Market Infrastructure and Liquidity” alongside executives from Panthertrade, Gravity Team and BitGo on November 3. The panel will examine how AI-driven execution models, tokenized market access, and synchronized liquidity pools are converging to create more resilient, capital-efficient and accessible trading infrastructure for professional market participants.

Themed “Fintech Nexus: Bridging the World, Building the Future”, HKFTW 2026 is organized around three strategic engines: Finance+, AI+, and Go Global, reflecting the city’s role as a super-connector between capital, innovation and international markets. The event features 10 dedicated forums, including the Digital Assets and Web3 Forum and the AI in Finance Forum, with keynote speakers from leading global financial institutions and regulators.

Bybit is not licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and its services are not available to the public in Hong Kong.

About Bybit

Bybit is The New Financial Platform.

We believe every person should have access to every financial opportunity on earth. That’s why we’re building the first intelligent platform that connects anyone, anywhere to the world’s finance.

Trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, Bybit brings together investing, trading, payments, and wealth-building in a single secure and intelligent ecosystem. Through the combination of AI-powered technology, deep global liquidity, robust security, and transparent operations, Bybit makes global finance more accessible, efficient, and empowering for everyone.

Built for everyone. Powered by intelligence. Open to the world.

Learn more at Bybit.com.
For more details about Bybit, please visit Bybit Press
For media inquiries, please contact: media@bybit.com
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SOURCE Bybit

Seventh annual ETA-TSG study finds 44% of consumers feel more financially stressed, while 57% report negative consequences when merchants don’t accept their preferred payment method

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Holiday shoppers are entering the 2026 season under greater financial pressure, and payment flexibility has become one of the clearest ways merchants can win and keep their business, according to a study released today by the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) and TSG (The Strawhecker Group).

The seventh annual Consumer Holiday Spending Study found that 44% of consumers feel more financially stressed than last year, up from 27% in 2025. Thirty percent report more debt than two years ago, up from 17%, and 33% say they usually take on holiday debt or likely will this year, up from 19%. Concern rose across all eight shopping issues measured by the study, led by inflation (82%). Concern about the affordability of gifts (64%) and managing a budget (57%) each rose 17 percentage points.

Consumers are responding by planning their spending more carefully. Seventy-two percent plan to set a holiday budget this year, and only 23% will shop without one, down from 40% in 2025. Seventy-three percent plan to spend less than $1,000 on holiday purchases. Spending plans are more polarized than last year: 22% expect to spend more, up from 18%, while 32% expect to spend less. This points to a competitive season in which consumers continue to spend but are selective about where those dollars go.

“Consumers are being careful with every dollar this year, and they are paying close attention to how they pay,” said Jodie Kelley, CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association. “Merchants that offer the payment options their customers rely on, with clear terms and strong security, are in the best position to win the sale and keep the customer. The payments industry is helping businesses of every size do exactly that.”

The study of 1,099 U.S. consumers, conducted September 8–13, 2026, found that payment acceptance directly affects where consumers shop. When a merchant does not accept a shopper’s preferred payment method, 24% of consumers would look for the same product at another merchant, and 7% would abandon or postpone the purchase. Another 26% would complete the transaction using a different method but would be less likely to return. In total, 57% report a negative consequence for the merchant.

Newer payment methods are becoming routine. Eighty-one percent of consumers use tap-to-pay regularly, and 89% of those who try it continue using it. Digital wallets and peer-to-peer (P2P) apps also see strong repeat usage, at 61% and 60%, respectively.

“Rising stress and debt make payment flexibility more appealing, and they make transparency and responsible financing more important,” said Mike Strawhecker, President of TSG. “Consumers are telling merchants that value and checkout flexibility matter more than speed. The merchants that deliver both will be best positioned this season.”

The study also found:

Online shopping: Free shipping (74%) and the ability to pay how they want (72%) are shoppers’ top priorities for online purchases.

Gift cards: 71% plan to buy at least one gift card, led by retailer-specific cards.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL): Opinion is split, with 37% viewing BNPL favorably and 36% unfavorably. Twenty percent expect to use it more this season than last.

AI-assisted shopping: 46% plan to use AI tools to compare prices, but only 23% would let AI complete a purchase on their behalf.

The complete study is available here.

About the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA): The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the world’s leading advocacy and trade association for the payments industry. ETA’s members include the world’s leading payments and financial technology companies—including payment processors, networks, banks, fintechs, software providers, independent software vendors, and payment technology innovators—collectively processing approximately $56.75 trillion annually in purchases and peer-to-peer payments worldwide. Learn more about ETA at www.electran.org.

Media Contact: Scott Talbott, stalbott@electran.org

About TSG: TSG (The Strawhecker Group) is a globally recognized analytics and consulting firm that supports the entire payments ecosystem, serving over 1,000 clients from Fortune 500 leaders to more than a dozen of the world’s most valuable brands. Trusted by industry leaders, TSG’s strategic services, market intelligence, and analytics merge to empower clients with actionable and accessible information. Please visit www.tsgpayments.com.

Media Contact: Andy Nuss, anuss@tsgpayments.com

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SOURCE Electronic Transactions Association (ETA)

The free feature brings announced Black Friday offers together in one searchable list, helping shoppers discover upcoming offers and plan purchases weeks before the sale

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Black Friday shopping doesn’t have to start on Black Friday. Slickdeals, the community-powered platform helping millions of shoppers discover the best deals online, today introduced The Sift, a free tool that brings announced Black Friday offers together in one list, weeks before the official sale begins. Shoppers can compare upcoming offers, save the products they’re interested in and build their shopping lists in advance. At launch, The Sift includes more than 1,500 offers from retailers including Costco, Sam’s Club and Lowe’s.

Traditionally, shoppers could flip through retailers’ Black Friday ad scans to see what was coming and plan their purchases. Today, those offers are scattered across retailer announcements, websites and online discussions, making it harder to get a complete picture of what’s ahead.

The Sift lets shoppers browse and search announced offers, filter by retailer, category or discount, and save the items they’re considering, with no account required. Some offers stay sealed until each retailer’s scheduled release date, so the list keeps growing as more Black Friday ads go public, giving shoppers a reason to check back.

The idea for The Sift grew out of a familiar challenge for deal hunters: keeping track of Black Friday offers before they go live. In recent years, Slickdeals community members have created their own comprehensive Black Friday spreadsheets to organize thousands of offers, earning enthusiastic feedback from fellow shoppers. The Sift builds on that same desire for a more organized shopping experience, bringing offers into a single searchable list that shoppers can sort, filter and personalize.

“Our community showed us what shoppers actually want before Black Friday: not more noise, but a way to see what’s coming and decide early,” said Johan Mengesha, Head of Content and Partnerships at Slickdeals. “The Sift takes the planning our members were doing by hand and makes it easy for every shopper, so they can go into the sale knowing exactly what they’re waiting for.”

Unlike Slickdeals’ community-vetted deals, which members post, vote on and discuss, The Sift focuses on what retailers have announced is coming. Each listing links to the retailer or, when a corresponding Slickdeals deal becomes available, to that deal’s community discussion and score.

Key features include:

One searchable list: Explore announced Black Friday offers from major retailers in one place.Filters that fit your shopping plans: Narrow offers by retailer, category or discount level, or search for a specific product.A look at what shoppers are saving: See which offers other shoppers are bookmarking, with a Top Saved badge highlighting popular offers in each category.A personal shopping shortlist: Save offers without creating an account, then access your list on the same device and browser. Sign in to sync your list across devices and opt in to email reminders for upcoming offers.A preview of what’s still to come: Some retailer offers remain sealed until their scheduled release dates, giving shoppers a reason to check back as more Black Friday ads become available.

The Sift will evolve as Black Friday approaches. Around mid-November, it will also feature a selection of top community-voted deals from Slickdeals, helping shoppers move from planning their purchases to finding the deals that are live.

The Sift brings together the early research and planning that happen before Black Friday with the community-driven deal discovery Slickdeals is known for.

The Sift is available now for Black Friday 2026 at https://slickdeals.net/sift/black-friday-deals. Shoppers can start browsing on their phone or computer, with no account required.

About Slickdeals
Slickdeals is a community-powered shopping platform where millions of shoppers share, vote on and discuss deals from leading retailers and brands. Since 1999, its community has put deals to the test, surfacing the best offers and calling out the rest, and helped shoppers save more than $10 billion. Through its website and mobile app, Slickdeals connects shoppers with worthwhile deals they might not find on their own. The deals you didn’t see coming.

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SOURCE Slickdeals