Payward Plans CFTC-Regulated Perpetual Futures on Hyperliquid for U.S. Clients

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has announced plans to offer U.S. clients access to onchain perpetual futures markets built on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, pending regulatory approval. The proposed structure would list contracts under Bitnomial Exchange, a designated contract market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that Payward acquired in May for $550 million. Client accounts would be carried by NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward’s registered futures commission merchant, which the company purchased for $1.5 billion in 2025.

The mechanics turn on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 framework, which permits third parties to deploy and administer permissioned perpetual futures markets on the chain. Bitnomial Exchange and Bitnomial Clearinghouse would act as the HIP-3 deployer, handling creation, administration, clearing, and settlement, while trade matching and recordkeeping would remain on Hyperliquid’s onchain order book. Jon Pham, Payward’s head of U.S. derivatives, described the structure as allowing a U.S. client to open a regulated futures account and trade perpetuals on Hyperliquid, cleared through the same clearinghouse already supporting Payward’s existing crypto perpetual offerings.

Perpetual futures have operated largely outside U.S. regulated markets since their introduction in 2016. Global volume exceeded $85 trillion in 2025 alone, according to CoinGecko’s 2026 State of Crypto Perpetuals Report, with Hyperliquid’s decentralised exchange accounting for roughly 9% of all open perpetual positions worldwide. For Hyperliquid, a CFTC-regulated operator deploying on its chain would represent a new source of U.S.-linked activity, though its existing markets would not become available to U.S. customers as a result. Payward has not disclosed a fee schedule, projected trading volumes, any economic arrangement with Hyperliquid, or a launch date.