Hyperliquid Labs is in advanced talks with Payward, the parent company of Kraken, over a potential structure that would bring selected crypto perpetual futures to U.S. traders through Bitnomial. Bloomberg Law reported that Payward has already presented the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with an outline of the arrangement. The deal would create a regulated U.S. route to Hyperliquid-linked derivatives without opening Hyperliquid’s permissionless trading platform directly to American customers.
Under the contemplated model, registered U.S. users would interact with Bitnomial rather than Hyperliquid itself. Bitnomial would list a selected group of perpetual contracts linked to markets available through Hyperliquid’s ecosystem, while handling the regulated exchange, clearing and brokerage infrastructure required for U.S. derivatives trading. The proposal effectively separates Hyperliquid’s market exposure from the customer-facing regulatory obligations of serving American traders.
Bitnomial Provides the Regulated U.S. Stack
Payward gained that infrastructure when it completed its acquisition of Bitnomial on May 1 after agreeing to pay up to $550 million in cash and stock. The deal gave Payward control of a designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization and futures commission merchant. That vertically integrated structure provides the exchange, clearing and brokerage layers needed to offer regulated derivatives through a domestic venue. Bitnomial’s acquisition announcement confirms the transaction and the three-part derivatives stack.
The regulatory status can also be independently verified through the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which lists Bitnomial Exchange as a designated contract market. The CFTC separately lists Bitnomial Clearinghouse as a registered DCO permitted to clear futures, options on futures and fully collateralized swaps. Those registrations are central to the proposed Hyperliquid structure because U.S. customers would trade through regulated Bitnomial infrastructure rather than directly on an offshore decentralized venue.
Payward has already begun using Bitnomial to expand its U.S. derivatives business. When announcing the acquisition, Bitnomial said the infrastructure would support regulated perpetuals, options and other derivatives for eligible customers across Payward brands including Kraken and NinjaTrader. Adding Hyperliquid-linked contracts would extend an existing regulated derivatives strategy rather than create Payward’s U.S. futures business from scratch.
Regulatory Approval Remains the Key Hurdle
The discussions have not produced a finalized agreement, and neither the specific contracts nor financial terms have been disclosed. Regulatory approval also remains pending. Former SEC senior counsel Ashley Ebersole estimated that establishing the necessary custody and routing framework could require at least 10 to 12 months even under a relatively fast process. That timeline is an outside legal estimate, not a confirmed launch schedule from Payward, Hyperliquid or the CFTC.
It is also unclear whether HYPE would be among the underlying assets offered at launch. The confirmed proposal concerns a subset of Hyperliquid-linked perpetual markets, not unrestricted access to every contract currently available through Hyperliquid.
If completed, the arrangement could provide a template for bringing crypto-native perpetual markets into the U.S. through licensed intermediaries. Its significance lies less in giving Americans direct Hyperliquid access than in testing whether decentralized-market exposure can be packaged inside a fully regulated domestic derivatives structure.
