Hyperliquid Gets a US Route Through Kraken Parent Payward
Payward plans to give approved U.S. clients access to regulated perpetual-futures markets running on Hyperliquid, combining public-blockchain execution with identity checks and CFTC-regulated clearing.
Key Takeaways
- The proposal still requires regulatory approval.
- Bitnomial would operate and clear contracts.
- U.S. client access would remain permissioned.
- No HYPE contract has been announced.
The announcement concerns Hyperliquid, not necessarily HYPE
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, intends to deploy onchain perpetual-futures markets for U.S. clients using Hyperliquid’s infrastructure. The plan remains subject to regulatory approval, and the company has not supplied a launch date.
The announcement does not say that the contracts will track HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token. It says the markets would run on Hyperliquid, which could host perpetuals linked to cryptocurrencies or other eligible assets. The initial contract list has not been disclosed.
Kraken already displays a HYPE perpetual contract for customers outside the United States. However, that product is separate from the proposed U.S. deployment.
A perpetual future allows a trader to take a long or short position without a fixed expiration date. Periodic funding payments help keep its price close to the underlying market. Because the contracts normally use leverage, relatively small price movements can produce larger gains or losses and may trigger liquidation.
A public order book would sit inside a regulated structure
The proposal divides responsibility among Hyperliquid and three regulated businesses owned by Payward.
Orders and completed trades would be recorded onchain, while regulated Payward businesses would retain responsibility for client accounts, market administration and clearing. Payward says it would become the first registered U.S. exchange and clearinghouse operator to deploy a market on Hyperliquid if the plan is approved.
Using a public blockchain would not create open access
American customers would not simply connect any wallet to Hyperliquid and begin trading. They would first need to complete NinjaTrader Clearing’s onboarding process. An account would then have to be allowlisted by both NinjaTrader and Bitnomial before it could enter the market.
The restriction is possible because HIP-3* allows an operator to limit one perpetual market to approved wallets without closing Hyperliquid’s existing open markets. The current technical documentation allows the operator to add or remove users, cancel open orders, submit reduce-only orders and move collateral within its venue.
Those controls could be used to respond to compliance or risk events, but they would apply only to the market operated by Bitnomial. Other Hyperliquid markets would remain outside its control.
HIP-3* is currently labelled testnet-only, and neither its mainnet terms nor Payward’s regulatory approval has been finalized.
Payward already offers US perpetuals—the venue is new
Regulated perpetual futures are not entirely new to Payward’s American business. Kraken introduced no-expiry futures for eligible U.S. customers in June through the same Bitnomial and NinjaTrader infrastructure.
The new element is the venue: Hyperliquid would match and record orders, while Bitnomial and NinjaTrader would continue handling the regulated parts of the service. Payward has not said whether customers would trade through Kraken Pro, NinjaTrader or another interface, so users should not assume they will access the market through Hyperliquid’s existing front end.
Six product details remain undisclosed
Payward has described the operating structure but has not yet supplied several details that traders would need before deciding whether to use the market:
- The assets represented by the first contracts
- The maximum leverage available to clients
- The accepted collateral and margin requirements
- The funding-rate calculation and payment schedule
- Trading, funding and clearing fees
- The remaining regulatory approvals and expected launch date
Until those terms are published, the proposal establishes a route to market rather than a finished trading product. For traders, liquidity, the reference-price methodology, margin requirements and funding costs will matter more than the fact that execution occurs onchain.
Liquidity will show whether the model works
Regulatory approval would establish that a U.S. futures operator can use a public blockchain without giving up control over customer eligibility and clearing. It would not prove that the resulting market can attract enough traders to function efficiently.
The first contract specifications will show what Payward is offering. Trading volume, open interest, spreads and funding costs will show whether placing the market on Hyperliquid improves the product or simply changes its technical location.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or legal advice. The proposed markets remain subject to regulatory approval, and their contracts, fees, leverage and launch date have not been announced.
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
