Hyperliquid Nears US Market Entry Through Kraken's Derivatives Venue

Hyperliquid Labs is holding advanced discussions with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, about a path into the US market, according to Bloomberg on Monday. The approach would avoid acquiring a licensed exchange outright.

Bitnomial, a derivatives exchange and clearinghouse regulated in the US and owned by Payward, would enable registered US traders to access a limited set of crypto perpetual futures linked to Hyperliquid. The proposal has already been submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by Payward.

What US Traders Would Actually Get

The offering would be less than what headlines imply, because Hyperliquid's own application remains inaccessible to US users due to geo-blocking, and the reported arrangement does not alter that.

US traders who are registered would execute trades on Bitnomial subject to American regulations, including identity verification and a restricted selection. Bloomberg reported that only a portion of crypto perpetual futures would be available, not the complete offshore book.

Markets for exotic assets created via Hyperliquid's third-party infrastructure, such as commodities and pre-IPO instruments, are not included in the reported proposal. Similarly, the leverage currently available on the offshore venue is excluded.

For those who already trade on the offshore platform, there is no change.

Why Hyperliquid Is Renting Instead of Buying

Payward completed its acquisition of Bitnomial on May 1, paying $550 million and obtaining three CFTC licenses in the process. In contrast, prediction market Polymarket spent $112 million to purchase its own licensed venue.

Renting the infrastructure costs Hyperliquid much less initially. The compromise is control, since Payward would retain ownership of the regulated venue and the customer relationships.

What It Means for HYPE

Exclusion from the US market has not obviously hurt HYPE token holders. The token reached an all-time high of $86.71 on August 27, despite having no registered US traders on the platform.

Hyperliquid channels 99% of its protocol and trading fees into buying back HYPE tokens, a mechanism that has removed $1.3 billion worth of tokens from circulation since December 2024. It has not been specified whether volumes settled on Bitnomial would feed into that buyback.

That distinction is more significant than the headline figure suggests. A fixed licensing fee versus a percentage of US trading revenue would yield vastly different results for the token.

On Monday, HYPE traded at $83.57, a 7.1% increase over the week, following President Donald Trump's statement on August 19 that regulators were seeking to bring Hyperliquid to US shores. A submission to the CFTC does not constitute approval, and neither company provided comment.