Track Your Bybit Holdings With a Read-Only API Key

A read-only Bybit API key lets PortfolioTrackr view your exchange balances and trade history without any power to trade or withdraw. Those permissions are simply never attached to the key, and Bybit sync runs on every plan, including the free trial, pulling balances into a dedicated portfolio.

Why tracking Bybit holdings manually falls apart

The problem with tracking Bybit by hand is that crypto balances move constantly and live nowhere near your stocks. You check the Bybit app for coins, a broker app for shares, and a spreadsheet to glue them together, and the total is stale the moment you close it.

Most retail investors who hold crypto also hold something else. A typical setup looks like this:

• BTC-USD and ETH-USD on Bybit, plus a few altcoins
• AAPL and an S&P 500 ETF at a stock broker
• Maybe a frontier-market name or a dividend stock somewhere else

Keeping those in three places means you never see one honest total. A read-only connection fixes the Bybit half of that problem without ever touching your funds.

What a read-only API key actually does

A read-only API key is a credential you create inside Bybit that grants permission to view balances and trade history, and nothing else. It cannot place orders and it cannot move money, because those permissions are never attached to it.

When you connect Bybit to PortfolioTrackr, here is what the key allows and what it blocks:

• Allowed: reading your coin balances and transaction history
• Blocked by construction: withdrawals, transfers and any trade

This matters because the usual fear about connecting an exchange is that something gains the power to drain it. With a read-only key, that power simply does not exist. The connection is one-directional: data flows out to your tracker, and nothing flows back in.

How the sync behaves once connected

Once connected, your Bybit balances sync automatically about every 15 minutes into a dedicated read-only portfolio. That portfolio sits alongside your other holdings and does not count toward your portfolio limit.

PortfolioTrackr also runs automatic cost-basis reconstruction for recognized crypto exchanges, so your Bybit trade history is used to work out what you paid, not just what you hold now. Your coins then appear in one multi-currency view next to stocks, ETFs and holdings from other exchanges.

How to connect Bybit step by step

Connecting Bybit takes a few minutes and happens entirely through a key you generate yourself. You create the key as read-only inside Bybit, then paste it into PortfolioTrackr. Here is the full sequence:

1. Log in to your Bybit account on the web.
2. Open the account menu and go to the API settings page.
3. Choose to create a new System-generated API key.
4. When setting permissions, select Read-Only. This is the critical checkbox. Leave trading and withdrawal permissions switched off.
5. Copy the API key and API secret Bybit shows you.
6. In PortfolioTrackr, open Connect a broker, choose Bybit, and paste both values.

The read-only choice is the one step people rush. If you see any option to enable trading or withdrawals, leave it off. A key with only read access is all PortfolioTrackr needs, and it is the only kind you should create for tracking.

If you want the broader picture on linking accounts, our guide on how to connect a brokerage account to a portfolio tracker walks through the same logic for stock brokers.

What you see once Bybit is syncing

Once Bybit is syncing, every coin you hold appears in its own read-only portfolio with current value, cost basis where it can be reconstructed, and profit or loss. You do not re-type a single balance.

Because PortfolioTrackr is a multi-currency tracker, your Bybit coins are valued and displayed alongside everything else:

• A combined total across crypto and stocks in your chosen display currency
• Per-coin profit and loss based on reconstructed cost basis
• Foreign holdings handled properly: cost converted at the rate on the day you bought, value at today's rate, with any currency gain or loss shown on its own line

You can also set server-side price alerts on your Bybit positions. Every position and every watchlist level is checked once a minute while the market is open, around the clock for crypto, and you hear within a minute of your level being hit. Alerts are price levels only: Target 1, Target 2 and a stop-loss on a position, or a price above or below on a watchlist entry.

Alerts you can set on crypto

For a Bybit position, the alert types are Target 1, Target 2 and a stop-loss level, all expressed as prices you choose. PortfolioTrackr reports status against your own levels, such as still below target or Target 1 reached, and never tells you what to do next.

Alerts arrive by email, WhatsApp, Telegram and push on every plan. SMS is available on Pro and Lifetime. If you hold both coins and shares, our write-up on tracking stocks and crypto together in one app covers how those alerts behave across asset classes.

The honest limits you should know first

Direct Bybit sync is genuinely useful, but it has boundaries worth stating plainly before you rely on it. None of these are hidden surprises; they are just how the connection works.

Syncing stops when a plan lapses

Direct broker sync, including Bybit, is on every plan, including the free trial and Starter. When a trial ends or a plan lapses, syncing stops until a plan is active again. The data is not deleted immediately.

Here is the timeline if no plan is chosen after a lapse:

• Syncing pauses straight away when the plan is no longer active
• You get a reminder email a week before removal
• If still no plan is active, the connection, its saved key and its portfolio are removed 30 days later
• You can connect Bybit again on any plan afterward

Disconnecting removes the imported positions

If you disconnect Bybit, the imported positions are removed with it. The connection is the thing holding that read-only portfolio together, so removing it removes the view. You can reconnect at any time with a fresh or existing read-only key.

One more practical note: PortfolioTrackr does not read a wallet address or connect to self-custody wallets. Coins held off-exchange are added by hand, by CSV or from a screenshot. The Bybit connection covers what sits on Bybit, not what sits in a hardware wallet.

Who this is for, and who it is not

This feature is for investors who keep real balances on Bybit and want them in the same total as everything else they own. It is a poor fit for a narrow set of users, and it is worth being honest about both.

If your crypto is spread across multiple exchanges, the same read-only approach applies elsewhere. Our guide to tracking Coinbase crypto next to your stocks shows the parallel setup, and the broader honest comparison of portfolio tracker apps for 2026 puts the whole thing in context.

A note on manual entry

Connecting Bybit is optional. If you prefer not to create an API key at all, you can still add your Bybit coins by hand, by CSV, by voice or text, or from a screenshot. The connection just removes the re-typing; it is never the only way in.

The bottom line

Tracking your Bybit holdings with a read-only API key gives you an automatic, withdrawal-proof view of your coins alongside your stocks and ETFs. The key you create cannot trade or move funds, balances sync about every 15 minutes, and the feature works on every plan, including the free trial.

Create the key as read-only, know that syncing pauses if your plan lapses, and remember that disconnecting removes the imported positions. Within those honest limits, it turns three scattered apps into one total you can actually trust.

Frequently asked questions