Hyperliquid Labs is said to now be pursuing a regulated path into the United States by negotiating with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, according to a Bloomberg report published on August 31, 2026. The discussions center on perpetual futures, the derivative contracts that have driven Hyperliquid’s rapid growth as an on-chain trading venue.
If completed and approved by regulators, the arrangement would not open Hyperliquid’s own interface to US based users.
Instead, eligible US customers would access a limited set of perpetual futures through Bitnomial, the CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage that Payward acquired earlier in 2026 for as much as $550 million.
Those contracts would be tied to the prices of crypto assets associated with Hyperliquid’s blockchain and decentralized exchange, rather than replicating the full offshore order book.The timing is notable.
The talks come only weeks after President Donald Trump said his administration was working to bring the fast-growing platform into the U.S. market.
Payward has already submitted an outline of the proposed structure to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), though final approval remains pending. Representatives of both Payward and Hyperliquid Labs declined to comment.
The structure reflects the regulatory reality facing offshore perpetual platforms. U.S. retail traders have long had limited access to crypto perps inside a fully licensed framework, with most global volume occurring abroad.
Bitnomial already underpins Kraken’s own CFTC-regulated perpetual futures offering for eligible US clients on Kraken Pro.
Routing a subset of Hyperliquid-linked products through the same stack would give Hyperliquid a compliant distribution channel without requiring it to acquire its own US exchange licenses.
Legal observers caution that the process may not be simple.
Former SEC senior counsel Ashley Ebersole has said that bringing Hyperliquid-related products onshore could require coordinated interpretive guidance from both the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission on issues such as custody and order routing.
That process, she estimated, could take 10 to 12 months even if it moved quickly.
The reported deal also highlights a broader industry pattern: pairing a high-volume decentralized venue with a licensed US operator rather than attempting a direct retail launch.
For US traders, the practical result would likely be a narrower product menu, identity verification, and leverage and listing limits consistent with domestic rules.
Exotic markets and the higher leverage available offshore would remain outside the reported plan.
Hyperliquid’s own application would stay unavailable to Americans.
Commercially, a successful partnership could expand Hyperliquid’s addressable flow while giving Payward additional differentiated contracts on infrastructure it already owns.
Terms, including any revenue or fee-sharing arrangement, have not been disclosed.
Nothing has been confirmed by either company, and the talks remain subject to regulatory sign-off.
The episode underscores how US crypto derivatives policy is evolving.
After years in which perpetual futures were largely an offshore product, licensed venues and parent-company acquisitions are being used to bring versions of those contracts onshore. Whether Hyperliquid becomes an early example of that model will depend on CFTC review and, possibly, additional guidance from securities regulators.
