Hyperliquid Seeks CFTC Approval for Perpetual Futures Trading

Hyperliquid is taking an aggressive approach to bringing perpetual futures trading to U.S. traders by working directly with regulators, rather than waiting for Congress to pass legislation.

The platform's CEO, Jake Chervinsky, wants the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to allow licensed institutions to offer perpetual futures trading on Hyperliquid's blockchain infrastructure.

Chervinsky argues that if the CFTC trusts licensed entities with perps, it should trust them to deploy that product on a blockchain that provides full transparency.

Hyperliquid has already met with the SEC's Crypto Task Force and submitted joint comments with non-custodial wallet Phantom to the CFTC, urging clarification on rules for on-chain market access.

The platform's expansion into tokenized real-world assets (RWA) creates a jurisdictional problem, as commodity-linked contracts fall under CFTC authority, but products tied to equities could trigger SEC oversight.

With $190 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days and annualized revenue estimated between $800 million and $1.3 billion, Hyperliquid is under pressure from competitors like Coinbase, which routes U.S. customers into Deribit's perpetuals.