How Far Is Hyperliquid from Entering the U.S. Market with Kraken's Parent Company?

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Asher (@Asher_0210)

With Hyperliquid making new progress in entering the U.S. market, HYPE has returned above $80.

Yesterday, Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff expressed his excitement about partnering with Kraken's parent company Payward to promote the development of on-chain derivatives based on Hyperliquid's infrastructure and to introduce a new generation of perpetual contract markets to the U.S.

According to the disclosed plan, Payward intends to become the first deployment party of the HIP-3* market regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The relevant plan still requires regulatory approval, and the supporting features are currently in the testnet phase.

This collaboration provides Hyperliquid with a pathway to serve U.S. customers through licensed institutions. As the roles of various parties become clearer, the market's focus has shifted to more specific questions—how U.S. customers will participate in trading and how far this arrangement is from going live?

Payward Takes Care of Accounts and Clearing, Hyperliquid Provides On-Chain Trading

Payward announced on September 16 that it plans to utilize Hyperliquid to provide on-chain perpetual contracts for U.S. customers. According to the proposed arrangement, Hyperliquid will provide the public chain and on-chain order book, while the exchange and clearing entity under Bitnomial will be responsible for creating and managing the market, as well as handling contract clearing and settlement, with NinjaTrader Clearing managing customer accounts. The corresponding regulatory obligations will be borne by the aforementioned licensed entities.

U.S. customers must complete the account opening process with NinjaTrader and simultaneously enter the access list of both NinjaTrader and Bitnomial to trade the relevant contracts. In other words, users will open futures accounts through licensed brokerage firms, and trading will utilize Hyperliquid's on-chain infrastructure, with market operations and clearing handled by the relevant institutions under Payward.

It is noteworthy that Payward has already provided its own perpetual contract products to U.S. customers, and this plan is an extension of its existing business to further incorporate Hyperliquid into its product lineup. For Payward, this is expected to expand customers' trading options; for Hyperliquid, the partner's account and service system may help it reach more users participating in derivatives trading through regulated channels.

Whether the cooperation can generate business growth depends on whether these links can be smoothly connected. On-chain matching is just one part of the trading process; customer account opening, fund management, clearing, and risk control also affect the product experience. The involvement of licensed institutions clarifies the bearers of these responsibilities and provides Hyperliquid's U.S. business with a more concrete operational plan.

How Does HIP-3 Connect Customer Verification with On-Chain Trading?

After U.S. customers complete the account verification, the on-chain market also needs to identify their trading qualifications. The HIP-3* that Hyperliquid is currently testing allows market deployers or their designated sub-deployers to maintain an on-chain access list to determine which accounts can participate in trading. Payward can use this to correspond customer verification results with on-chain access permissions, ensuring that access requirements are implemented in the trading process.

HIP-3 is an optional feature added on top of HIP-3, and deployers can decide whether to enable it, while existing markets remain unchanged.* The initial version has been opened on the testnet, and specifications may still be adjusted based on feedback, with formal support awaiting subsequent network upgrades. This design allows the same infrastructure to support markets with different access conditions, and each operator can manage their deployments based on service regions, customer types, and applicable requirements.

However, the access list addresses account access control, while customer verification, contract rules, clearing arrangements, and other regulatory obligations still need to be implemented by the operators. Hyperliquid officials have also clarified that deployers, as independent operators, retain control and responsibility for their markets. Therefore, this cooperation involves a new market aimed at qualified U.S. customers, and which products will ultimately be opened will depend on the scope of approval, and should not be understood as the entire platform being fully open to the U.S.

Regulatory Approval Remains Key to Implementation

As the cooperation progresses, the CFTC is also exploring new rules for the crypto market. On October 5, the agency issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, intending to establish adaptive rules for related crypto asset retail commodity trading based on existing statutory authority, and to study a specialized registration category for crypto asset markets. The public comment period will end on December 14, and no new effective system has yet been formed. The CFTC is seeking feasible paths to regulate the crypto market within the existing legal framework, but Payward's cooperation plan still requires specific approval.

As of this disclosure, neither party has announced a confirmed launch date or a complete list of contracts, and the specific trading conditions applicable to U.S. customers remain to be further clarified. Whether business growth can be achieved will also depend on product selection, liquidity, trading costs, and account usage experience. The licensed business system provides a foundation for entering the U.S. market, but whether it can attract users for continuous trading will require data validation after the product launch.

This cooperation incorporates Hyperliquid's on-chain trading infrastructure into the business planning of licensed institutions in the U.S., and if successfully implemented, it will also provide a reference for other institutions. HYPE has already risen, but Hyperliquid still needs to overcome the hurdles of approval and launch to enter the U.S. market.

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