Hyperliquid Strikes US Perps Deal With Kraken Parent

Hyperliquid Labs is partnering with Payward, the parent of Kraken, to bring crypto perpetual futures to U.S. traders through a deal with Payward subsidiary Bitnomial, a CFTC-licensed derivatives venue, according to Bloomberg. Under the proposed structure, registered U.S. users would get access to a selection of perps linked to markets on Hyperliquid's decentralized exchange and its underlying Layer 1 blockchain. Payward has already pitched the CFTC on the outline of the arrangement but is still awaiting final regulatory approval. Payward acquired Bitnomial earlier this year for up to $550 million, gaining a U.S. derivatives stack that spans exchange, clearing and brokerage operations.

Why it matters

The deal hands Hyperliquid the licensed U.S. onramp it could not build alone. Bitnomial carries the only regulatory profile that lets a venue list perps onshore for retail and institutional accounts under current rules, so the partnership compresses what would otherwise be years of licensing work into a single acquisition-based entry. Former SEC senior counsel Ashley Ebersole, now co-founder and chief legal officer at real-world assets platform tx, told The Block that the final path still likely requires the SEC and CFTC to write revised interpretive rules on custody and routing mechanics, a process she pegged at 10 to 12 months even if things move quickly. The political backdrop is unusually explicit: President Trump said publicly that CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. in a "fully compliant and legal fashion," and a CFTC spokesperson told The Block the agency is committed under Selig to "promoting fair access and responsible innovation" so the next generation of financial markets is "built here in America and not overseas."

Market impact

The structural read is that offshore DeFi perps are being courted onshore through licensed wrappers rather than abandoned to offshore venues. In May the CFTC greenlit KalshiEX and Coinbase to list crypto perpetual futures, and in June it released a request for comment on crude oil perps and 24/7 trading, the regulatory runway Hyperliquid and Payward are now racing onto.