Hyperliquid (HYPE) has selected Payward, the parent company of Kraken, as its first Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated deployer for its HIP-3 markets. Payward plans to use Hyperliquid’s infrastructure to introduce perpetual futures markets for US customers, pending regulatory approval.
The proposed arrangement involves Bitnomial, Payward’s CFTC-regulated designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization, which would create, own, and administer the markets. NinjaTrader Clearing, Payward’s CFTC-registered futures commission merchant, would handle client accounts if the plan is approved.
The deployment will utilize HIP-3*, an extension of Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 framework that introduces optional permissioned markets. This feature allows deployers to restrict market access through on-chain allowlists. Hyperliquid noted that support for this configuration will arrive through a future network upgrade, with an initial version currently available on testnet.
This announcement follows Payward’s earlier statement in September about bringing on-chain perpetual futures to US clients, starting with Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets. However, the deployment remains pending regulatory approval, and the initial HIP-3* implementation is still on testnet, with no confirmed launch date for the proposed markets.
At the time of writing, HYPE is trading at $77.50, up nearly 3% in the past 24 hours.