Hyperliquid, the decentralized exchange built around perpetual futures, said on October 26, 2026 that it intends to name Payward, the parent company of Kraken, as the first deployer regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on its HIP-3 market framework. The plan still depends on regulatory approval, and no launch date has been given.
What the plan involves
Under the announced structure, Bitnomial, a CFTC-designated contract market that Payward acquired this year, would create and operate the markets and handle clearing and settlement. NinjaTrader Clearing, a CFTC-registered futures commission merchant that also sits within Payward, would hold customer accounts. Hyperliquid would supply only the on-chain order book and matching infrastructure.
Trading would be limited to customers on the allowlists of both NinjaTrader and Bitnomial, meaning they must finish onboarding first. The permissioning feature is optional within HIP-3, currently runs only on testnet with preliminary parameters, and is expected to ship in a future network upgrade. Existing HIP-3 markets are unchanged.
What HIP-3 is, and how big it already is
HIP-3 lets builders launch their own perpetual markets on Hyperliquid, provided they stake at least 500,000 HYPE. According to data cited in a report published the same day, Hyperliquid's total trading volume was about 64.7 billion USD over the 30 days to around October 20, 2026. HIP-3 accounted for roughly 26.7% of that volume, with open interest of about 3.92 billion USD. One deployer, trade.xyz, represents around 97–98% of HIP-3 volume and open interest.
That makes HIP-3 a meaningful segment, but a highly concentrated one. A second deployer with a clear regulatory status would change the picture if approved, although the real impact depends on which markets launch first, and that has not been disclosed.
Background
The idea is not entirely new. Payward announced a plan to bring on-chain perpetuals to U.S. clients through Bitnomial on September 16, 2026, and Hyperliquid had already been testing permissioned markets since early September. The October 26 statement is the first time Hyperliquid named Payward as the first CFTC-regulated deployer. Hyperliquid describes itself as a neutral infrastructure layer, with each deployer responsible for its own markets. Payward had not responded to requests for comment when the news broke.
What to watch next
Three things matter: whether Bitnomial wins approval as a deployer, whether the first contracts are crypto, equities or something else, and how customer identity checks will work, which is still unclear. Readers comparing futures venues can also browse CoinHammy's exchange rankings and the Kraken review.
What it means for traders
For futures traders this is first an infrastructure and regulatory story rather than an immediate market change. No regulated market is live yet, so there is no direct effect on liquidity, funding rates or liquidations on Hyperliquid today.
Mechanically, if U.S. customers gain access to an on-chain order book through a regulated entity, new capital could lift volume and open interest on HIP-3 markets. Higher open interest usually means larger leveraged positions, so sharp moves could trigger bigger liquidation cascades. That is a possibility to monitor, not a forecast.
On prices, HYPE traded around 77–78 USD on October 27, up roughly 1–1.6% over 24 hours, while Bitcoin sat near 79,500–79,800 USD and Ethereum near 2,300 USD. HYPE's move so far shows no outsized reaction to the news. Traders should watch for a formal approval, the first contract list and HIP-3 open interest data in coming weeks, rather than treating an announced plan as already in effect.