Payward Brings On-Chain Perps to US Clients on Hyperliquid

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, is planning to introduce on-chain perpetual futures markets for its US clients on Hyperliquid. This move would make it the first US-regulated venue to offer this product, giving American traders access to a market that has been largely out of reach for years.

The operation will be divided between two regulated subsidiaries: Bitnomial, which will handle the clearing and settlement of contracts, and NinjaTrader Clearing, which will manage client accounts. Each trade will be matched and recorded on Hyperliquid's public blockchain via its on-chain order book.

Payward intends to be the first registered US exchange to offer builder-deployed perps, taking control of the markets while also handling regulatory obligations. According to Jon Pham, head of US derivatives at Payward, a US client would open a futures account with Payward's registered broker and use this account to trade new perpetual futures contracts on Hyperliquid.

Hyperliquid co-founder Jeffrey Yan introduced HIP-3 earlier this month, a feature that gives deployers the option to create permissioned markets using on-chain allowlists. This addition helps facilitate the arrangement for US clients to access perpetual futures markets.