Hyperliquid Labs and Kraken parent Payward have entered advanced talks to offer selected Hyperliquid-linked perpetual futures to U.S. traders through CFTC-regulated exchange Bitnomial.
Summary
- Payward has presented the CFTC with an outline of the proposed arrangement.
- Bitnomial would list selected contracts rather than provide access to Hyperliquid’s decentralized platform.
- The parties still need regulatory clearance before making the products available.
- HYPE traded near $84 after gaining more than 60% since the start of August.
Hyperliquid could reach U.S. traders through Bitnomial
Bloomberg reported on Aug. 31 that Hyperliquid Labs and Payward are discussing a structure that would place selected crypto perpetual futures on Bitnomial, a U.S. derivatives exchange owned by the Kraken parent.
Under the proposed setup, eligible American customers would trade the contracts through Bitnomial rather than connect directly to Hyperliquid’s decentralized platform. The companies have not disclosed which assets would be included, how many contracts could be listed, or whether HYPE would be among the underlying tokens.
Payward has already presented the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with an outline of the arrangement, according to Bloomberg. Regulatory clearance is still required, and no launch date or commercial terms have been announced.
Bitnomial would handle the U.S. trading venue, customer access, and compliance requirements. Hyperliquid technology would support the assets or markets linked to the selected products, allowing the arrangement to separate the regulated contracts from the permissionless platform used by the protocol’s existing customers.
American users remain unable to access Hyperliquid directly. An August filing cited in earlier protocol coverage said the platform continued to restrict U.S. users and that Hyperliquid Strategies was unaware at the time of any pending CFTC approval process for the network.
The discussions do not amount to approval for Hyperliquid itself to operate as a U.S. exchange. Bloomberg’s reported structure instead places any American trading activity inside Bitnomial’s regulated system and limits access to contracts selected for that venue.
Payward already controls a full U.S. derivatives stack
Payward completed its acquisition of Chicago-based Bitnomial on May 1 after first valuing the transaction at up to $550 million in cash and stock. The final price was not disclosed.
Through the acquisition, Payward gained control of a designated contract market, a derivatives clearing organization, and a futures commission merchant. The three CFTC-regulated entities allow Bitnomial to combine exchange trading, clearing, and brokerage services within one corporate group.
As crypto.news previously reported, Bitnomial spent more than a decade building the licenses needed to operate that structure. Payward said at the time that Bitnomial would keep its regulatory framework and continue providing services to third parties after joining the company.
The infrastructure has already supported Payward’s U.S. expansion. Kraken introduced perpetual futures for eligible American clients through Bitnomial in June, placing the contracts alongside spot, margin, and traditional futures products on Kraken Pro.
Kraken said customers could use one collateral pool across perpetuals and other derivatives positions. John Palmer, Kraken’s global head of derivatives, said the setup reduced the need for traders to divide capital and positions among separate platforms.
Perpetual futures differ from dated futures because they do not have a fixed expiration. Recurring funding payments between long and short traders are used to keep the contract price close to the value of its reference asset.
Although the format is common on offshore exchanges and decentralized platforms, U.S. access has historically been limited by federal derivatives rules. Bitnomial’s involvement would give American traders access through a supervised exchange, but it would not open Hyperliquid’s full selection of onchain markets to them.
CFTC review will determine the permitted structure
The CFTC would serve as the main federal regulator for the proposed crypto derivatives because Bitnomial operates under the Commodity Exchange Act. Depending on the final structure and referenced assets, regulators would need to determine how the contracts are classified and whether their listing process meets applicable exchange requirements.
Hyperliquid-linked groups are already engaging U.S. regulators on related questions. In an Aug. 24 comment letter, the Hyperliquid Policy Center asked the SEC and CFTC to recognize qualifying cash-settled equity perpetuals as security futures.
The group argued that regulators should first examine how a derivative is structured and traded before using its underlying asset to divide oversight. Under its proposal, futures-like perpetual contracts tied to individual stocks would come under the security futures framework jointly administered by the SEC and CFTC.
HIP-3 markets using Hyperliquid infrastructure processed more than $480 billion in cumulative notional volume during their first 10 months, according to the policy center. Positions on the markets use central limit order books and continuous margin, while funding payments help align perpetual contract prices with their reference assets.
The proposed Payward arrangement concerns selected crypto contracts rather than unrestricted access to HIP-3 or the rest of Hyperliquid. Bloomberg did not report that the SEC is involved in the discussions, and neither Payward nor Hyperliquid has published the proposed contract list.
U.S. regulators would also expect the regulated venue and its intermediaries to apply customer identification, anti-money laundering, and sanctions controls. Such requirements differ from the permissionless access model used by decentralized trading protocols.
HYPE extends its August rally after the report
HYPE traded at about $84.50 when checked, rising roughly 3% over 24 hours after recovering from an earlier decline. The token had gained more than 60% since the start of August, though available reports did not establish that expectations of U.S. access caused the entire monthly advance.
Hyperliquid processes more than $4 billion in daily trading volume, according to figures cited in the original report. Any Bitnomial offering would cover only a selected portion of Hyperliquid-linked markets, while the companies have not disclosed whether revenue from the U.S. contracts would flow to the protocol or affect HYPE’s existing token-buyback system.
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