Hyperliquid Seeks US Entry Through Kraken Parent Payward in Perpetuals Deal

Hyperliquid Labs is in advanced talks to route its offshore perpetual futures through Payward’s U.S.-regulated Bitnomial entity, Bloomberg reported Monday. Payward is Kraken’s parent. For the Singapore-based perps exchange, the deal would open its first legal corridor into the American market.

Under the proposed structure, Bitnomial would offer registered U.S. users access to a selection of crypto perps linked to markets on Hyperliquid’s decentralized exchange, according to The Block and Decrypt. Bitnomial holds CFTC licenses as both a U.S. derivatives exchange and a clearinghouse. That is the stack Payward acquired earlier this year for up to $550 million, gaining control of exchange, clearing and brokerage operations in a single purchase. Monetary terms of the Hyperliquid-Payward arrangement remain undisclosed.

In practice, that means Hyperliquid’s perps would run through a named, regulated operator rather than the permissionless contract the platform currently hosts. That is the crux of the onshore problem. Hyperliquid’s Layer 1 handles more than $4 billion in daily volume with no central operator. Bloomberg noted regulators worry that setup exposes venues to manipulation or other criminal activity. Routing trades through Bitnomial would supply the operator and the oversight the framework demands.

The structure has already reached the regulator. Payward presented the CFTC with an outline of the proposed deal, Bloomberg reported. Approval remains pending. A Kraken spokesperson declined to comment to The Block. Representatives for Payward and Hyperliquid Labs declined to comment to Bloomberg, Decrypt reported.

A dual-agency timeline

One deal does not settle the regulatory question. For Hyperliquid (HYPE) to come to the U.S., both the SEC and CFTC may need to write revised interpretive rules on custody and the mechanics around current routing standards. Former SEC senior counsel Ashley Ebersole said so in an interview with The Block.

That could take at least 10 to 12 months, Ebersole said, “assuming things went quickly.” Ebersole is now co-founder and chief legal officer at real-world assets platform tx.

In practice, that means even an approved Payward structure is a starting point, not a launch date.

A CFTC spokesperson framed the stakes in a statement to The Block: “If the United States fails to keep pace with rapid advances in trading and markets, we risk ceding our reputation as the global hub of financial innovation. Under Chairman Selig’s leadership, the CFTC is committed to promoting fair access and responsible innovation so that the next generation of our financial markets are built here in America and not overseas.”

Weeks after Trump’s onshore signal

The talks arrive weeks after President Donald Trump named Hyperliquid by name. At a press conference alongside tech leaders and federal agency chairs, Trump said CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring the platform into the U.S. in a “fully compliant and legal fashion,” The Block reported. The remarks sent Hyperliquid’s HYPE token sharply higher, Decrypt noted.

Last week, the Hyperliquid Policy Center separately urged the SEC and CFTC to harmonize their treatment of perpetual contracts. Clearer rules, the group argued, would pull more market share onshore. In May, the CFTC greenlighted KalshiEX and Coinbase to list crypto perps. In June, it released a request for comment on crude oil perpetual contracts and 24/7 trading.

A $90 trillion market waiting on a rulebook

The backdrop is an offshore perps market valued at roughly $90 trillion. Former regulators say it is drifting beyond U.S. oversight. Kalshi, which began offering crypto perps earlier this year, estimates offshore perpetuals trading topped $90 trillion in 2025. Two years earlier, the figure stood around $28 trillion, Decrypt reported.

A bipartisan group of former CFTC and SEC officials pressed that case in a comment letter. The signatories: former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, former CFTC Commissioners Brian Quintenz and Sharon Brown-Hruska, former SEC Commissioner Steven Wallman and former SEC Chief Economist Chester Spatt. They argued similar risks should face similar treatment and that overlapping rules should not pile on added compliance costs. Kalshi sponsored the letter through law firm Bellementis PLLC. The signatories said they were not compensated and that Kalshi had no say over its contents.

“The $90 trillion offshore perpetuals market isn’t a mystery to solve, it’s a market waiting for a sensible U.S. rulebook,” Giancarlo told Crypto In America. “If we calibrate federal regulation to actual risk instead of maximum burden, that liquidity comes onshore. Every year we wait, it gets harder to bring to America.”

The comment arrives as the SEC’s “Reg Crypto” proposal sits in the Federal Register, open for public input until October 20. The agency separately sent a planned rewrite of its custody rules for investment advisers and investment companies to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review. The text is not public. Which firms could qualify as crypto custodians remains unclear.

Hyperliquid’s native HYPE token was trading up 1.3% over the past 24 hours to $84.25, per The Block’s data at press time. It reached an all-time high just above $86 the week prior. Over the past year, it is up over 85%, ranking among crypto’s best performers over that span.