Hyperliquid is in advanced talks with Payward, the parent company of Kraken, to bring a selection of its perpetual futures to US traders through the CFTC-licensed Bitnomial exchange, according to a Bloomberg report. The arrangement would give the largest decentralized derivatives platform a compliant route into a market it has never been able to serve directly.
Under the proposed structure, registered US users would trade a subset of contracts on Bitnomial, a Payward subsidiary, linked to markets on Hyperliquid’s decentralized exchange and its Layer 1 blockchain. They would not get access to the full offshore platform, with its wider menu of exotic markets including tokenized commodities and pre-IPO equities. Bloomberg reported the talks on August 31, citing people familiar with the matter. Representatives for both companies declined to comment.
Why the structure matters
Payward closed its acquisition of Bitnomial in May specifically to secure CFTC licensing, and the proposed deal extends that strategy of building regulated market access through acquired licenses rather than new registrations. Rival Polymarket took the opposite route, paying $112 million for its own licensed derivatives venue, QCEX, earlier this year.
For Hyperliquid, the deal would answer a question that has hung over the platform since its rise: how a protocol with no US registration reaches American traders without inviting enforcement. The answer on the table is to route the flow through someone else’s license, with identity checks, a limited contract menu and US rules applying on the Bitnomial side of the trade.
President Donald Trump said on August 19 that CFTC Chairman Mike Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the US in a fully compliant way, and the CFTC has publicly told Bloomberg that failing to keep pace with technological change risks the country’s standing as a hub of financial innovation.
Regulators pull perps onshore
The talks land amid a broader regulatory push to move perpetual futures trading onto domestic venues. In May the CFTC cleared KalshiEX and Coinbase to list crypto perpetual futures. In June it issued a request for comment on crude oil perpetual contracts and round-the-clock trading. The Hyperliquid negotiation, if it clears sign-off, could serve as a template for other offshore, unregistered platforms seeking a compliant US route.
The market reacted on both sides of the trade. HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, rallied more than 35% on the week after the Bloomberg report and set a fresh all-time high above $86, pushing its market value into the $17 billion to $21 billion range. Shares of ICE and Nasdaq, which operate competing derivatives infrastructure, fell 1.3% to 1.5% on the same day, a sign of how exchanges read the news. HYPE has added more than 85% over the past year, one of the strongest runs among major crypto assets, and the prospect of licensed US distribution is the main reason analysts cite.
What a deal would and would not change
A signed agreement would not open Hyperliquid’s own platform to Americans. It would create a parallel, regulated market where a limited set of Hyperliquid-linked contracts trades under US rules. Traders who want the full offshore experience would still face geographic restrictions, and the two markets could price differently, as onshore and offshore venues already do. Liquidity would also split at first, since a new venue needs time to build flow even when it mirrors a busy offshore book.
For Payward, the arrangement pairs with its other moves this month. The company joined an alliance with SoFi that links banking rails to crypto trading, including a bank-issued stablecoin on a major exchange and round-the-clock dollar settlement for institutional clients. The company is assembling a stack: licenses, banking, and now an offshore liquidity partner.
The remaining obstacle is regulatory approval of the structure itself. The CFTC has signaled openness, but a novel arrangement linking a decentralized order book to a domestic licensed venue has no exact precedent. Approval would also set the terms others copy. If the CFTC accepts a subset-of-contracts model for Hyperliquid, every offshore platform watching this negotiation gains a roadmap, and if it rejects the structure, the template collapses. Until the regulator signs off, the talks remain talks, and HYPE’s record high rests partly on a deal that does not yet exist.
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