Kraken parent plans regulated Hyperliquid perps

Payward has announced plans to bring on-chain perpetual futures to eligible U.S. clients through Hyperliquid's HIP-3 infrastructure, using CFTC-regulated Bitnomial to deploy, clear and settle the proposed contracts.
Summary

• Payward plans regulated Hyperliquid perpetual markets for eligible U.S. clients, subject to regulatory approval first.
• Bitnomial would deploy, administer, clear and settle HIP-3 contracts under its existing CFTC-regulated infrastructure stack.
• NinjaTrader Clearing would carry client accounts, restricting access to users approved by both entities beforehand.
• Hyperliquid recorded nearly $237 billion in perpetual trading volume over thirty days, DefiLlama data shows.
• Payward reported 6.6 million funded accounts at June-end after launching regulated U.S. perpetuals through Bitnomial.

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, said on Sept. 16 that Hyperliquid would be the first blockchain protocol used for the initiative. The planned markets remain subject to regulatory approval and are not yet available for U.S. trading.

The proposal expands on Payward's existing U.S. derivatives business. In its second-quarter 2026 financial update, the company said Bitnomial infrastructure already supports regulated U.S. perpetual futures and spot margin products. Payward reported 6.6 million funded accounts at the end of June, up 42% year over year.

NEW: Kraken's parent company Payward confirmed our scoop earlier that it is bringing Hyperliquid's perps to the US, first starting with a permissioned HIP-3 market pic.twitter.com/vOA7sw3pmn --- Muyao (@MuyaoShen) September 16, 2026
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Payward would put regulated markets directly on Hyperliquid

The planned structure differs from Payward's existing U.S. perpetual futures because trades would use Hyperliquid's public blockchain infrastructure.

Under Payward's proposal, Bitnomial Exchange would act as the HIP-3 deployer. It would create, own and administer the perpetual markets while Bitnomial Clearinghouse handles clearing and settlement. Transactions would use Hyperliquid's on-chain order book for matching and recording trades.

Hyperliquid's official HIP-3 documentation says builder-deployed markets inherit HyperCore's order books and margin system. Deployers control contract definitions, oracle prices, leverage limits and settlement procedures for the markets they create.

HIP-3 was originally designed as permissionless infrastructure. Hyperliquid recently introduced optional permissioning that lets market deployers restrict participation through on-chain allowlists. As crypto.news reported earlier this month, the feature was designed to support markets where regulatory or institutional requirements limit who can trade.

Payward plans to use that model for U.S. customers. Only traders successfully onboarded by NinjaTrader Clearing and included on the required NinjaTrader and Bitnomial allowlists would have access.

The arrangement would not give American customers unrestricted access to every market currently available through Hyperliquid. Bitnomial would determine which regulated products it deploys and administers under its exchange rules.

Bitnomial provides Payward's CFTC-regulated stack

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. The Commission's current register continues to list the company as a designated contract market, or DCM. Bitnomial Clearinghouse is separately registered as a derivatives clearing organization. CFTC records state that it can clear futures, options on futures and fully collateralized swaps.

NinjaTrader Clearing would sit on the customer side of the proposed Hyperliquid structure. Its regulatory disclosures identify it as a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant and National Futures Association member under NFA ID 0309379.

The clearinghouse currently lists NinjaTrader Clearing among its clearing members. Payward acquired Bitnomial earlier this year. As crypto.news previously reported, the transaction gave the Kraken parent control of exchange, clearing and brokerage infrastructure for its domestic derivatives business. The acquisition had previously been valued at up to $550 million.

Kraken began offering perpetual futures to eligible American customers through Bitnomial in June. The initial setup brought perpetual contracts onto Kraken Pro alongside spot, margin and traditional futures products.

Payward's latest plan would reuse parts of that regulated structure while moving execution of the proposed contracts onto Hyperliquid infrastructure.

Hyperliquid HIP-3 activity has grown rapidly

The proposal follows a sharp increase in trading through Hyperliquid and its builder-deployed markets. Current DefiLlama data for Hyperliquid show approximately $237 billion in perpetual futures volume over the latest 30-day period and around $45.5 billion over seven days. Cumulative perpetual volume stood above $5.3 trillion in the same snapshot.

The protocol's HIP-3 system lets independent teams create markets using Hyperliquid's trading infrastructure. A deployer currently needs to meet a 500,000 HYPE staking requirement to launch a mainnet perpetual DEX, according to Hyperliquid documentation.

Builder activity 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. A Hyperliquid Research Collective report cited by crypto.news in September estimated that the venue processed $202.36 billion during the quarter and controlled 95.1% of HIP-3 trading volume. The figures came from independent researchers and were not audited financial results.

Payward said in its announcement that one existing HIP-3 operator accounts for around 98% of builder-deployed open interest. The company did not identify the venue by name in that statement.

CoinGecko's 2026 State of Crypto Perpetuals report puts the size of the global market in context. Centralized perpetual exchanges handled $85.3 trillion of volume during 2025, while decentralized perpetual venues generated $6.38 trillion, up from $1.50 trillion in 2024.

CoinGecko calculated that average monthly volume among the 12 largest perpetual DEXs reached $611.57 billion during the first months of 2026.

U.S. clients would trade through approved accounts

The proposed Hyperliquid product would preserve traditional regulated-account controls even though market execution occurs on public blockchain infrastructure.

A U.S. customer would first need a futures account through NinjaTrader Clearing. The account would then need approval for the relevant Bitnomial market, while the associated address would have to appear on the permissioned HIP-3 access list.

Jon Pham, Payward's head of U.S. derivatives, described the proposed setup as using the same clearinghouse that supports Payward's existing American perpetual futures.

Arjun Sethi, Payward's co-CEO, said the company intends for Bitnomial to hold the market keys and regulatory obligations. His remarks described the proposal as a way to connect public blockchain trading infrastructure with registered U.S. derivatives entities.

The plan is a more concrete version of discussions first reported in August. At the time, Hyperliquid and Payward were exploring a regulated U.S. route through Bitnomial, while Payward had presented the proposed structure to the CFTC.

A subsequent testnet upgrade supplied a technical component needed for such a structure. Hyperliquid introduced deployer-controlled allowlists for permissioned HIP-3 markets, letting operators determine which addresses could participate.

Earlier on-chain testing had already attracted attention. Crypto.news reported in August that a test deployment named "Kraken HIP-3 test DEX" had whitelisted 10 wallets and experimented with compliance-related controls. Kraken had not confirmed ownership of that test deployment at the time.

Regulatory clearance remains the next step

Payward has not announced a launch date for its Hyperliquid markets.

The company expressly described the planned on-chain contracts as subject to regulatory approval and said they would be listed under Bitnomial Exchange rules.

CFTC records reviewed for this report confirm Bitnomial's existing DCM registration, Bitnomial Clearinghouse's DCO registration and NinjaTrader Clearing's FCM status. The records do not yet establish final regulatory clearance for the specific HIP-3 arrangement announced Sept. 16.

Bitnomial already lists regulated crypto perpetual products. CFTC market records include perpetual contracts 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 Payward's newly proposed Hyperliquid HIP-3 perpetual markets.

The HYPE spot contract was self-certified by Bitnomial earlier in 2026, with the exchange stating in its filing that the contract complied with the Commodity Exchange Act and relevant CFTC rules.

Payward said Hyperliquid would be the first protocol used for its planned U.S. on-chain perpetual markets and that it intends to make similar regulated infrastructure available for other partner products. No additional blockchain protocol or launch timetable was named in the Sept. 16 announcement.