Hyperliquid Labs and Payward, the parent company of Kraken, are in advanced discussions to offer selected Hyperliquid-linked perpetual futures to U.S. traders through Bitnomial, a derivatives exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Hyperliquid may reach U.S. traders through Bitnomial
Bloomberg reported on Aug. 31 that Hyperliquid Labs and Payward are considering a structure that would list selected crypto perpetual futures on Bitnomial, the U.S. derivatives exchange owned by Kraken’s parent company.
Under the proposed arrangement, eligible U.S. customers would trade the contracts through Bitnomial instead of connecting 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.
According to Bloomberg, Payward has already presented the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with an outline of the arrangement. Regulatory clearance is still required, and the companies have not announced a launch date or commercial terms.
Bitnomial would provide the U.S. trading venue, customer access, and compliance infrastructure. Hyperliquid technology would support the assets or markets linked to the selected products, separating the regulated contracts from the permissionless platform used by the protocol’s existing customers.
U.S. users remain unable to access Hyperliquid directly. An August filing cited in earlier coverage of the protocol said the platform continued to restrict U.S. users. It also said Hyperliquid Strategies was not aware at the time of any pending CFTC approval process for the network.
The discussions do not represent approval for Hyperliquid itself to operate as a U.S. exchange. Instead, Bloomberg’s reported structure would place any American trading activity within Bitnomial’s regulated system and limit access to contracts selected for that venue.
Payward controls a complete U.S. derivatives platform
Payward completed its acquisition of Chicago-based Bitnomial on May 1. The transaction had initially been valued at up to $550 million in cash and stock, although the final price was not disclosed.
The acquisition gave Payward control of a designated contract market, a derivatives clearing organization, and a futures commission merchant. Together, the three CFTC-regulated entities allow Bitnomial to provide exchange trading, clearing, and brokerage services within one corporate group.
As crypto.news previously reported, Bitnomial spent more than a decade securing the licenses required to operate that structure. Payward said when the acquisition was announced that Bitnomial would retain its regulatory framework and continue serving third-party clients after joining the company.
The infrastructure has already supported Kraken’s U.S. expansion. In June, Kraken introduced perpetual futures for eligible American clients through Bitnomial, placing the contracts alongside spot, margin, and traditional futures products on Kraken Pro.
Kraken said customers could use a single collateral pool across perpetual futures and other derivatives positions. John Palmer, Kraken’s global head of derivatives, said the arrangement reduced the need for traders to split capital and positions across separate platforms.
Perpetual futures differ from dated futures because they have no fixed expiration date. Recurring funding payments between long and short traders help keep the contract price close to the value of its reference asset.
The format is common on offshore exchanges and decentralized platforms, but federal derivatives rules have historically limited U.S. access. Bitnomial’s involvement could give American traders access through a supervised exchange without opening Hyperliquid’s full range of onchain markets to U.S. customers.
CFTC review will shape the final structure
The CFTC would be the primary federal regulator for the proposed crypto derivatives because Bitnomial operates under the Commodity Exchange Act. Depending on the final structure and the assets referenced, regulators would need to determine how the contracts should be classified and whether the listing process satisfies applicable exchange requirements.
Groups linked to Hyperliquid are already engaging U.S. regulators on related issues. In an Aug. 24 comment letter, the Hyperliquid Policy Center asked the Securities and Exchange Commission and the 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 fall under the security futures framework jointly administered by the SEC and CFTC.
According to the policy center, HIP-3 markets using Hyperliquid infrastructure processed more than $480 billion in cumulative notional volume during their first 10 months. 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, not unrestricted access to HIP-3 or the broader Hyperliquid platform. Bloomberg did not report that the SEC is involved in the discussions, and neither Payward nor Hyperliquid has published a list of the proposed contracts.
U.S. regulators would also expect the regulated venue and its intermediaries to apply customer identification, anti-money laundering, and sanctions controls. Those requirements differ from the permissionless access model used by decentralized trading protocols.
$HYPE extends its August rally
$HYPE traded at about $84.50 when checked, up roughly 3% over 24 hours after recovering from an earlier decline. The token had gained more than 60% since the start of August, although available reports did not establish that expectations of U.S. access were responsible for 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. 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.
