Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, said on September 16 that it intends to deploy onchain perpetual futures for U.S. clients on Hyperliquid, creating a regulated path for American traders to access a product that has largely operated outside domestic oversight since its debut in 2016.
The proposal remains subject to regulatory approval, and no launch date has been set. If cleared, it would mark the first time a registered U.S. exchange and clearinghouse operator has deployed a market on Hyperliquid's public blockchain, according to the company's announcement from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
"We already list our own US perpetuals and intend to deploy on Hyperliquid as well, putting clients first, not ourselves," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward.
The structure splits responsibilities across three regulated entities and one blockchain. Bitnomial, Payward's CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, would act as the HIP-3 deployer, creating, owning and administering the market and then clearing and settling contracts. NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward's registered futures commission merchant, would carry client accounts. Hyperliquid's public blockchain would run the onchain order book that matches and records every trade.
Access would be limited to accounts that complete NinjaTrader's onboarding process and appear on both NinjaTrader and Bitnomial allowlists, a dual-gating structure that narrows the eligible pool relative to standard exchange signup. This permissioned model is made possible by HIP-3*, a recently introduced variant of Hyperliquid's builder-deployed market framework that lets deployers restrict participation through onchain allowlists.
"A U.S. client would open a futures account with Payward's registered broker and trade new perpetual futures contracts on Hyperliquid, cleared through the same clearinghouse that already supports the crypto perpetual contracts Payward offers U.S. clients today," said Jon Pham, head of U.S. derivatives.
A regulated bridge to an offshore market
Perpetual futures have traded mostly outside U.S. regulated venues since their introduction. In 2025 alone, more than $85 trillion changed hands worldwide, according to CoinGecko's 2026 State of Crypto Perpetuals Report. Hyperliquid's decentralized exchange settles roughly 9% of all open perp positions globally. The protocol processed more than $200 billion in volume over the 30 days prior to the announcement, with one source citing approximately $237 billion over the same window.
The announcement does not specify which assets the first contracts would track. It says the markets would run on Hyperliquid, which could host perpetuals linked to cryptocurrencies or other eligible assets. Kraken already displays a HYPE perpetual contract for customers outside the United States, but that product is separate from the proposed U.S. deployment.
Payward acquired Bitnomial in May for $550 million and bought NinjaTrader Clearing for $1.5 billion in 2025. The company reported 6.6 million funded accounts at the end of June, up 42% year over year. Kraken began offering perpetual futures to eligible American customers through Bitnomial in June, bringing no-expiry contracts onto Kraken Pro alongside spot, margin and traditional futures products.
The new element in the latest proposal is the venue. Hyperliquid would match and record orders, while Bitnomial and NinjaTrader would continue handling the regulated parts of the service. Payward has not said whether customers would trade through Kraken Pro, NinjaTrader or another interface, so users should not assume they will access the market through Hyperliquid's existing front end.
The announcement lands at a moment of shifting regulatory terrain. The CLARITY Act, a market-structure bill that would have divided crypto oversight between the SEC and the CFTC in law, failed its first Senate floor test on September 15 by 49 votes to 50, short of the 60 needed to advance and short even of a simple majority. Every Democrat and four Republicans voted against it.
With the bill stalled, U.S. digital-asset policy continues to run on agency discretion rather than statute. That is precisely the lane Payward is using through CFTC-regulated entities that are already licensed and supervised under existing rules. A firm that holds those licenses does not have to wait for Congress to bring a product to U.S. clients.
A separate legal question hangs over the category. CME Group has challenged how the CFTC treats perpetual contracts, arguing they belong under the Dodd-Frank Act as swaps rather than as ordinary listed futures. The dispute surfaced after the CFTC cleared Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual in May. How that classification lands would shape what a HIP-3 deployer can list and for whom.
Federal records confirm that Bitnomial already holds the central registrations needed for Payward's U.S. derivatives operation. The CFTC designated Bitnomial Exchange as a contract market in 2020. Bitnomial Clearinghouse is separately registered as a derivatives clearing organization. NinjaTrader Clearing is identified as a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and National Futures Association member under NFA ID 0309379.
CFTC records also show Bitnomial already lists regulated crypto perpetual products tied to assets such as XRP, Stellar, Cardano, Tezos and Litecoin. The exchange separately has a HYPE/USD spot product, which should not be confused with the newly proposed Hyperliquid HIP-3 perpetual markets.
HYPE, Hyperliquid's native token, was trading near $78 to $79 at the time of the announcement, holding inside an ascending channel it has traced since the start of 2026 despite an approximately 8.5% slide over the prior seven days. The weekly retreat came as the broader crypto market pulled lower following the CLARITY Act vote, which briefly sent Bitcoin toward $75,000.
The 20-week moving average for HYPE sits at $65.29, well clear of the 50-week average at $46.49. A weekly close under $73.32 would open the next reference at $63.17, which roughly lines up with the 20-week average. The 14-week RSI reads about 62, above the 50 mark that separates buyers from sellers but short of the 70 level where an asset is usually called overbought.
The HIP-3 framework carries a cost of entry that ties back to the token. A deployer must stake 500,000 HYPE to run a market, one reason the arrangement matters for HYPE demand and not only for Kraken's product line.
Builder activity on Hyperliquid has extended past cryptocurrencies. HIP-3 markets have been used for products tied to equities, commodities and other financial assets. TradeXYZ became the dominant HIP-3 operator during the second quarter, with one independent research report estimating the venue processed $202.36 billion during the quarter and controlled 95.1% of HIP-3 trading volume. Payward said in its announcement that one existing HIP-3 operator accounts for around 98% of builder-deployed open interest, without identifying the venue by name.
Payward has described the operating structure but has not yet supplied several details traders would need before deciding whether to use the market. These include the assets represented by the first contracts, maximum leverage, accepted collateral and margin requirements, the funding-rate calculation and payment schedule, trading and clearing fees, and the remaining regulatory approvals and expected launch date.
A Kraken spokesperson said the company could not speculate on the potential revenue the offering would bring and did not address questions about expected trading volumes. Hyperliquid was contacted for comment but had not responded by publication time.
For Hyperliquid, the proposed deployment could add a CFTC-regulated operator and a new source of U.S.-linked activity to its chain. It does not mean that its existing perpetual markets become available to U.S. customers, and the companies did not disclose how any revenue from the new markets would be divided.
Until contract specifications and CFTC acknowledgment arrive, the proposal establishes a route to market rather than a finished trading product. Trading volume, open interest, spreads and funding costs will show whether placing the market on Hyperliquid improves the product or simply changes its technical location.